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THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 




DR REWTOR’S BOOKS 


The Best Things $1.25 

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CONTAINING THE LAST SIX VOLS. IN A NEAT BOX. $7.50. 


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The King in His Beauty 1.25 


“ The Rev. Dr. Newton’s books for the young are distinguished 
by the brightness and point of their illustrations of the most im- 
portant and attractive teachings of the Bible, drawn from all fields 
of experience and knowledge. As a preacher to children, probably 
he has no superior. He unfailingly secures their attention at the 
outset, and holds it to the close. At the same time he sacrifices 
nothing to effect. He tells no stories merely because they are good 
stories, but only because, in his application of them, they are tell- 
ing applications of Scripture truths .” — Episcopal Register. 

‘‘Another of Dr. Newton’s inimitable books of Sermons for the 
Young. The Doctor has an established reputation as the prince of 
children’s preachers. His volumes in this line now number a dozen 
or more, and form a most admirable library for a family in which 
young children are growing up.” — S. S. Times. 


»o* 

By Dr. Newton’s Son, Rev. W. W. Newton. 

Little and Wise 1.25 


ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS. 



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THE 


KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


BY 

Rev. RICHARD NEWTON, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF “JEWEL CASE,” THE “WONDER CASE,” ETC. 




ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

530 Broadway. 



Copyright 1878. 

By Robert Carter and Brothers. 

/& - 3-7 3 / 3 ^ 


Cambridge: 

* 

PRESS OF 

JOHN WILSON AND SON. 


ST. JOHNLAND 
STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 
SUFFOLK CO., N. Y. 


PREFACE. 


We sometimes see a bright jewel, which has many 
smooth, polished sides or surfaces. It is pleasant to 
take up such a jewel ; turn it carefully over ; look at 
its many surfaces, one after another; and notice the 
different views they present, of the beauty shining out 
from that precious stone. 

Now, the character and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
our blessed Saviour, may well be compared to such a 
jewel. There are very many sides to this jewel. And 
there is a wonderful variety in the rays of light and 
loveliness, that shine out from these different sides. 
No two of them are exactly alike. It is an interesting 
and profitable study to examine this jewel carefully, and 
see the amazing brightness and beauty that are hid in 
it, and are all the time shining out from it. 

The aim of the present volume, * is to assist the young 
in doing this. Their attention is here called to a few of 
the shining surfaces of this great Jewel. Jesus, in the 
riches of his grace, and the wonders of his love, is the 
one theme of these sermons. 


6 


PREFACE. 


If the reading of them shall help any of his young 
friends, in their efforts to know Jesus more, to love and 
serve him better, and, in so doing, to be happier, and 
more useful, the writer will feel abundantly rewarded 
for his labor. 


CONTENTS. 


I. The King in his Beauty 11 

II. The Beauty of the King 45 

III. The King in the Beauty of his King- 

dom . . . 79 

IV. The Beauty of the King’s Family. . 109 

V. The Beauty of the King’s Work. . 143 

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. 

VI. The Beauty of the King’s Work . . 177 

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. 

VII. The Beauty of the King’s Lessons . 211 

THE LESSON OF TRUST. 

VIII. The Beauty of the King’s Lessons . 245 

THE LESSON OF GENTLENESS. 

IX. The Beauty of the King’s Titles. . 279 

JESUS COMPARED TO A ROCK. 

X. The Beauty of the King’s Titles. . 313 

JESUS THE BREAD OF LIFE. 









































































































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T. 

THE KING EST HIS BEAUTY. 


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I. 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 

“ Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty .” 

Isaiah xxxiii. 17. 

The King here spoken of is Jesus. This 
promise refers to heaven. There will be 
many glorious things for us to see when 
we get to heaven. But the grandest, and 
the most beautiful of all, -will be to see Je- 
sus himself. The apostle Paul says that 
there “we shall see him as he is.” It must 
have been a blessed thing to have seen Je- 
sus when he was on earth ; but that was 
nothing compared to what it will be to see 
him in heaven. When Jesus was here, in 
this world, we have no reason to suppose 
that he was remarkable for the beauty of 
his appearance. We are not told indeed, by 
the good men who wrote his life in the Gos- 
pels, how he looked. The prophet Isaiah is 


12 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


the only one of the sacred writers, who has 
given any particular account of his appear- 
ance “when Jesus was seen among men.” 
And he speaks of him as — “a man of sor- 
rows, and acquainted with grief ; with no 
form, nor comeliness, and with no beauty that 
we should desire him” (Isaiah liii. 2, 3). 

But it will be very different when we 
come to see Jesus in heaven. There will 
be wonderful beauty, and glory, about him 
there. And those who love and serve him 
here, will see all this beauty and glory 
there. Jesus prayed for this very thing 
when he was here on earth. In the 17th 
chapter of St. John’s Gospel, we have writ- 
ten out for us the great prayer which Jesus 
offered for his people, just before he went 
to be crucified. In the twenty-fourth verse 
of that chapter, we have these wonderful 
words ; — “ Father, I will that they also 
whom thou hast given me, be with me 
where I am; that they may behold my glory, 
which thou hast given me.” These words 
of Jesus, in his prayer, give us the best 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


13 


explanation we can have of the meaning 
of the prophet Isaiah, when he wrote the 
sweet promise contained in our present text. 
“ Thine eyes shall see the King in his beau- 
ty.” If you ask me to tell you what this 
promise means? I would answer the ques- 
tion by turning to these words of Jesus in 
his prayer — “Father, I will that they also 
whom thou hast given me, be with me 
where I am ; that they may behold my 
glory.” The King spoken of in one of these 
passages, is Jesus, who is speaking himself 
in the other passage. The “beauty” that 
Isaiah speaks of, is the same thing as the 
“glory” that Jesus prays about. Isaiah calls 
it “the King’s beauty.” Jesus calls it — “my 
glory.” Isaiah does not tell us where this 
beauty was to be seen; but Jesus tells us. 
He says it will be — “ivhere I am” And 
we know very well where Jesus is. Jesus 
is in heaven. And every one who loves Je- 
sus can look up to him, and say; — 

“’Tis where thou art is heaven to me, 

And heaven, without thee can not be.” 


14 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


And so these words of Isaiah lead our 
thoughts up to heaven — “Thine eyes shall 
see the King in his beauty.” We all hope to 
go to heaven when we die. If we really 
love and serve Jesus, we certainly shall go 
there. And so we should be interested in 
hearing of what we are to see when we get 
there. God has not told us much concern- 
ing heaven. We should try to understand 
all that he has told us. The apostle Paul was 
taken to heaven, before he died, and then 
came back again to earth. He saw “the 
King in his beauty,” there ; but he never told 
about it. He said he was not allowed to tell 
what he had seen (II Cor. xii. 4). 

And so we can only learn about heaven 
by studying what God has told us of it in 
his blessed word. This passage in Isaiah is 
one of the places in which it is spoken 
of. “Thine eyes shall see the King in his 
beauty.” 

And when we come to think of the beauty, 
or glory, of Jesus in heaven, there are three 
things with which that glory will be con- 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


15 


nected, and which we must speak of, in order 
to understand this subject properly. 

The first of these is — the place — where Jesus 
unit he , when we see him in his beauty. 

We call this place heaven. In the Bible it 
is compared to different things. Sometimes 
it is spoken of as a paradise, or garden, full 
of all bright and beautiful things. When 
Adam and Eve were first created, you know 
that God put them in such a garden, or par- 
adise. In that garden, we are told that God 
made to grow, “ every tree that was pleasant 
to the eye and good for food.” And we 
know they would have been perfectly happy 
there, if they had only minded what God 
told them. But Satan got in there, in the 
form of a serpent, and tempted them to eat 
of the tree, of which God had said they must 
not eat. And then they were driven out. 
In this way that Paradise was lost. But 
Jesus came to restore it to us. And heaven 
is compared to a garden, because it will be 
a place in some respects like the Garden of 
Eden. It will be a “Paradise Kestored.” 


16 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


But it will be better than that first Paradise, 
because Satan will never be allowed to get 
into it to tempt us. And we shall never sin, 
and never be put out of it. Heaven is spoken 
of as a paradise in II Corinth, xii. 2, 4, and 
Rev. ii. 7. 

Sometimes heaven is spoken of in the Bi- 
ble as “ a country." Paul calls it — “a better 
country, that is a heavenly” (Heb. xi. 16). 
The original word here means a Fatherland. 
Canaan, you know, was the land, or country, 
promised to the Jews. And while they were 
toiling in Egypt, or travelling through the 
wilderness, it was the thought of that blessed 
country, that promised land, that cheered 
and comforted them. That was a beautiful 
country. God called it “a land flowing with 
milk and honey,” he said it was — “a good 
land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains 
and depths that spring out of valleys and 
hills ; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, 
and fig-trees, and pomegranates, a land of 
oil olive, and honey; a land wherein they 
should eat bread without scarceness, and not 


► THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


17 


lack any thing in it; a land whose stones 
were iron, and out of whose hills they might 
dig brass” (Deut. viii. 7-10). And so the 
land of Canaan was one of God’s types, or 
figures of heaven. And when we read in 
the Bible about the fertility and glory of that 
land it should lead us to think of heaven, the 
place where Jesus is, and where “our eyes 
shall see the King in his beauty.” 

Sometimes heaven is spoken of in the Bi- 
ble as a kingdom, where all is “righteous- 
ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ” 
(Rom. xiv. 17). Sometimes it is spoken of 
as a temple, in which all God’s people shall 
worship, and serve him day and night, with- 
out ever feeling weary (Rev. iii. 12, iv. 8). 
Sometimes it is spoken of as a building , a 
house , or home, in which all who love God 
will be brought together, as one great fam- 
ily; all knowing and loving one another, 
and perfectly happy in being with Jesus, 
where he is, and “seeing the King in his 
beauty.” This is the way in which Jesus 
himself spoke of heaven, when he said — 


18 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“In my Father’s house are many mansions; I 
go to prepare a place for yon” (John xiv. 2). 

But the fullest description we have in the 
Bible of heaven, the place where Jesus is, 
is when it is compared to a city. In one 
place it is called “a continuing city ” (Heb. 
xiii. 14). In another place it is spoken of 
as — “a city that hath foundations , whose build- 
er and maker is God ” (Heb. xi. 10). But it 
is in the last two chapters of the Bible that 
we have the fullest descriptiqn of heaven. 
And here it is represented as a city. But 
it is the most beautiful city that any eye 
has ever seen, or any ear has ever heard 
of, or any mind has ever thought of. Gold, 
and pearls, and precious stones, are the only 
materials employed in the building of this 
city. Earthly houses only have those parts 
of them which are seen, finished off beauti- 
fully. The foundations, and those parts not 
seen, are made of very coarse, rough ma- 
terials. But it is very different with the 
house, or city, which Jesus is preparing as 
our heavenly home, — the place where we 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


19 


are to “see the King in his beauty.” The 
very foundations of this city, even down to 
the lowest of them, are made of precious 
stones. Each of its gates is made out of one 
vast pearl. The walls and streets of the city 
are all made of pure gold. Only think of 
a city paved with gold; where the people 
walk on gold, and where the gold is as fine 
and transparent as glass, so that you can 
see through it. How poor and mean the 
grandest palaces of earthly kings become 
compared with this! 

How much beauty there will be in such 
a place as this ! We see a great many beau- 
tiful things in this world of ours. A day in 
spring is beautiful, when the leaves are burst- 
ing open, and the flowers are coming out, 
and the birds are singing, and the air is 
balmy, and the sun is bright; — yes, a day 
in spring is beautiful. The rising sun is 
beautiful, and so is the setting sun. A 
moonlight night is beautiful. Our world is 
full of beauty. And yet this world is only 
the prison-house, in which God keeps his dis- 


20 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY, 


obedient children. But if God can afford 
to make his prison-house so beautiful, how 
much more beautiful must the palace be in 
which his Son is to reign as King ; and where 
his own dear children are to live forever? 
When the Psalmist is speaking of this place* 
he says — “ the perfection of beauty,” is there 
(Ps. 1. 2). There is no perfection of beauty 
in this world. Here the ripest fruit has 
some speck in it. The sweetest rose has a 
thorn on the stem, or a worm at the heart 
of it. The brightest sky has a cloud upon 
its surface ; and the sun itself has dark spots 
on its face. There is something to mar the 
beauty of all our brightest things in this 
world. But in that world, — that city, — that 
place where Jesus is — there will be nothing 
to mar the beauty that is seen everywhere. 
It will all be “the perfection of beauty.” 

A little girl was gazing up at the starry 
sky one clear night. She seemed to be very 
much occupied in thinking about something. 
Her mother said to her; “What are you 
thinking about, my dear ? ” 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


21 


“ Oh ! mamma,” she said, “ I was thinking 
if the outside of heaven is so beautiful, how 
very beautiful it must be inside !” 

A very sweet thought, indeed, and one we 
may often consider ourselves, when we look 
up at the sky, on a clear, bright night, and 
see how it sparkles in its loveliness. That 
is the outside of heaven. 

Sometimes when people are dying the heav- 
enly land, where Jesus is, comes very near 
them, so that they can see it before they 
die. 


THE LAND BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS. 

A little boy lay dying. His father and 
mother were sitting on one side of his little 
bed, and the doctor was waiting and watch- 
ing near. He had been silent for some time, 
and appeared to sleep. They thought he 
might pass away as he slept. But suddenly 
his blue eyes opened, wide and clear, and a 
sweet smile broke over his face. He looked 
upwards very earnestly, and then turning to 
his mother said ; — “ Mother, what is that 


22 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


beautiful land that I see there, beyond the 
mountains ? ” 

“ I don’t see any mountains, my dear,” said 
the mother. 

“ Look there, mother dear,” he said, point- 
ing up. “They are very near now; so large 
and high; and the country beyond them 
seems so beautiful ! The people are so hap- 
py; and there are no sick children there. Is 
that the heavenly land I see?” 

“Yes, my child,” his mother sobbed, “that 
is the heavenly land where Jesus dwells.” 

“Oh, mother — oh, father, don’t be sorry 
for me ; but come after me, to that beautiful 
land. Good-by, mother dear, I’m going now; 
and Jesus has sent his angel to carry me 
over the mountains.” 

These were his last words. He died in 
his mother’s arms. The angel carried him 
over the mountains to “ see the King in his 
beauty.” But he had caught a glimpse of 
its brightness before he went away. The 
beauty of the place is one of the things that 
will help to make up the glory, or beauty, 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


23 


that we shall see in Jesus when we go to 
heaven. 

The second thing tmU he — the company — about 
Jesus when we see him in his beauty. 

However beautiful the 'place may be, which 
is to be our heaven, we never could be satis- 
fied with that alone. Jewelled walls, and 
pearly gates, and golden streets are all very 
well. They must be wondrously beautiful. 
But these, of themselves, could never make 
us happy. When we go to the house we 
live in, and which we call home , what is it 
that makes it feel so sweet and pleasant to 
us ? It is not the walls of the building. It 
is not the furniture of the rooms — the tables, 
and chairs, the carpets on the floor, or the 
pictures that hang on the walls. It is not 
these things that make that place home to 
us; but it is the presence there of a dear 
father or mother, of brothers and sisters, 
of those whom we love, and who, we know, 
love us. And so it will be with heaven. 
The place will have something to do with the 
beauty we shall see, and the happiness we 


24 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


shall enjoy there ; but the company will have 
much more to do with it. 

And now let us talk a little about the com- 
pany we shall meet in heaven. Who will 
make up this company? Well, to begin with, 
the angels will form a part of this company. 
We are told in the Bible that there will be 
in heaven — u an innumerable company of an- 
gels ,} (Heb. xii. 22). I never saw an angel. 
You never saw an angel. No doubt that any 
of us would feel frightened, if we should see 
one cbme into the room where we were. 
But we know, from what the Bible tells us, 
that the angels are very beautiful. They are 
always spoken of as clothed in white. They 
are sometimes spoken of as having wings, 
but not always. Sometimes they have ap- 
peared in the form of men, or women, but 
without any wings. We are not told how 
they looked; but we know that they must be 
very beautiful in their appearance. And to 
see such a beautiful place as heaven is, filled 
with such beautiful beings as angels are, 
must help to make heaven very beautiful. 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


25 


But now, I think I hear one of you say: 
— “Ah! yes; the angels, I dare say, are very 
beautiful. But then I don’t know them; and 
they don’t know me. I should be afraid of 
them. I don’t think I could feel at home, 
or happy with them.” 

This is very natural. And if there were 
to be none but angels, in the company of 
heaven, it would not feel very much like 
home to us. But then there will be others 
in heaven, besides the angels. All the good 
people that we read about in the Bible will 
be there. Abraham will be there; and so 
will Joseph, and David, and Daniel, and 
Peter, and John, and Paul. And all the 
good people, who have died since, will be 
there too. 

But then the company of heaven comes 
nearer to us even than this. I suppose there 
is not one person who will read these pages, 
but has some friend, or relation, in .heaven. 
Have you lost a beloved father, or mother, 
or uncle, or aunt, who loved Jesus? You 
will find them in heaven. Have you lost 


26 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


a dear brother, or sister, old enough to love 
and serve Jesus? You will find them in 
heaven. Hear what an aged minister once 
said, on this very point. 

HEAVEN. 

“ When I was a boy I used to think 
of heaven as a glorious golden city, with 
jewelled walls, and gates of pearl, with no- 
body in it, but the angels, and they were all 
strangers to me. But after awhile my little 
brother died; then I thought of heaven as 
that great city, full of angels, with just one 
little fellow in it that I was acquainted with. 
He was the only one I knew there, at that 
time. Then another brother died, and there 
were two in heaven that I knew. Then my 
acquaintance began to die, and the number 
of my friends in heaven grew larger all the 
time. But, it was not till one of my own 
little ones was taken that I began to feel 
that I had a personal interest in heaven. 
Then a second went, and a third, and a 
fourth; and so many of my friends and 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


27 


loved ones have gone there, that it seems 
as if I knew more in heaven than I know 
on earth. And now, when my thoughts 
turn to heaven, it is not the gold, and the 
jewels, and the pearls that I think of — but 
the loved ones there. It is not the place, 
so much as the company that makes heaven 
seem beautiful.” 

Have any of us lost dear little baby broth- 
ers and sisters, too young to learn about Je- 
sus here? We shall find them in heaven. 
Did you ever think of this, that there are 
more children in heaven, than there are 
grown people? It is so. Do you ask me 
how I know it? I will tell you. 

It is very well known that more than half 
of the people born into this world die while 
they are children. But Jesus takes all the lit- 
tle ones to heaven. He taught us this him- 
self when he took them in his arms, put 
his hands on them, and blessed them; say- 
ing — “ Suffer the little children to come unto 
me, and forbid them not; for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven .” 


28 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


Here, then, we are sure that at least one 
half of those born into the world go to heav- 
en, because they die as children. But what 
becomes of the other half! Do they all go 
to heaven! Alas! No. A good many of 
them never love, or serve, or trust in Jesus. 
It is a sad thing to say it, but it is true, 
they can not go to heaven. And if the whole 
of one half of those born into the world die 
as children, and thus go to heaven, and only 
part of the other half, who grow up to be 
men and women go to heaven, then it is 
plain, that as the whole of one half is great- 
er than a part of the other half, there must 
be more children in heaven than there are 
grown people. 

And some people think that when children 
die, and go to heaven, they do not grow up 
to be men and women, but that they always 
remain children. I am not able to say, for 
certain, that this is so; because God has not 
told us about it; and no one can tell us for 
him. But I hope it may be so. For I do 
love children so much that I should like to 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


29 


think that there will always he children in 
heaven. But if they all grow up to be men 
and women, by and by, there will be no 
children there, and this, it seems to me,' 
would not be so pleasant. 

If you go into a garden you never find 
all the flowers in full bloom at the same 
time. Instead of this you will find, mingled 
with the full-blown flowers, some buds half 
opened, and others just beginning to open. 
And this variety adds very much to the 
beauty of the garden. But heaven is God’s 
garden. Christian men and women will be 
the full-blown flowers in that garden; and 
children wiU he the huds. And it seems to 
me there will always be buds there, as well 
as flowers in full bloom. But God is much 
wiser than we are, and which ever way he 
orders it will he the best. 

But this company in heaven will be all 
good, and kind, and holy. They will be all 
“made perfect.” Here, in this world, we 
have no perfect children, and no perfect 
men and women. But we shall all he perfect 


30 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


there. There will be none blind, or deaf, 
or lame, or sick in heaven. There will be 
none cross, or proud, or selfish in heaven. 
There will be no ugliness of any kind in 
heaven. There will be perfect beauty in the 
place, and perfect beauty in the company 
there. And they will all know and love one 
another there. No one will feel a stranger, 
or alone in heaven. 

It is a very painful feeling that we have 
when we find ourselves alone, and unknown, 
among strangers. 

THE STRANGER NOT A STRANGER. 

In the early settlement of the city of Cin- 
cinnati, there was only one way for persons 
to get there, and that was by means of the 
flat-boats that passed up and down the Ohio 
river. 

On one occasion a boat landed there. It - 
had come down the river from Pittsburgh. 
There was a company of people on board that 
boat, who were going to Cincinnati to live 
there. Their friends were expecting their 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


31 


arrival, and had met, down by the side of 
the river, to welcome them. As they left 
the boat their friends gathered around them, 
to shake hands with them, and give them 
the warmest kind of a welcome. 

But in that company, who had just arrived, 
there was one who was a stranger. He had 
no friends, or any one that knew him in Cin- 
cinnati. There was no one there to shake 
hands with him, or bid him welcome to the 
place. He had been feeling lonely before, he 
felt ten times more so now. 

The crowd was beginning to scatter, leav- 
ing that stranger alone on the boat. Lean- 
ing over the railing of the boat, he called 
after them, saying — 

“ Friends, if there are any of you who love 
the Lord Jesus Christ, I am your brother.” 

In a moment half a dozen of them were 
at his side. They shook him warmly by 
the hand, and bade him welcome to their 
homes. 

How different Cincinnati seemed to that 
stranger now, from what it did a moment 


32 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


before ! The place indeed was the same ; but 
0, how different the company seemed! He 
was among friends now, and that made him 
feel at home. 

And so it will be with us when we get 
to heaven. Jesus will know and love every 
one who enters there. He will introduce 
us to those who are there, and they will 
all love us, because we love Jesus. Angels, 
and Christians, old and young, men, women, 
and children, will all make one great happy 
family. 

“ Thine eyes shall see the King in his 
beauty.” There will be beauty in the place , 
and beauty in the company. 

But there is a third thing that ivill have more 
to do with the beauty of heaven, than either the 
place , or the company — and that is — the per- 
son AND PRESENCE OF JESUS. 

But what shall I say about this point of 
our subject? It is easy enough to talk about 
the place , where heaven is to be. It is easy 
enough, too, to talk about the company that 
will be there; but when we come to think 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


33 


about the person , and presence of Jesus , in 
heaven, who is able to speak on such a 
subject ? 

There was a celebrated painter, once, who 
was making a picture of Jesus, in the midst 
of his twelve apostles. In arranging the 
picture he concluded to paint the apostles 
first, and not begin with their Master till 
he had finished them. As he went on with 
the picture, he tried to do the very best he 
could, with each of the apostles. He took 
the greatest pains with their figures, their 
positions, their dress and their faces. As 
he went on with his work he was very well 
pleased with it. After finishing the apos- 
tles he began with the person of Jesus. 
He got on very well with this, till he came 
to the head, and face, of our blessed Lord. 
Then he laid down his brush and paused. 
He felt that the face of Jesus ought to be 
made to appear as much more beautiful 
than his disciples, as the sun is more glo- 
rious than the stars. But how could he do 
this? He had tried so hard to make the 
3 


34 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


disciples look well, that he felt he had no 
power left to make their Master appear as 
much superior to them as he ought to ap- 
pear. And so he finished the person of Je- 
sus all but the head, and then painted him 
with a white mantle thrown over his head. 
He thought that when persons came to look 
at his painting, they could imagine what the 
face of Jesus ought to be, better than he 
could represent it by painting. 

And I feel very much as that painter did, 
when I come to speak about — the person and 
presence of Jesus in heaven. All who love 
Jesus here on earth, agree in saying that 
from what they know of him now, he is — 
“the chief among ten thousand, and altogeth- 
er lovdy.” Then how will he appear, when 
our eyes come to “ see the King in his 
beauty,” in heaven? Just look for a mo- 
ment at what some good Christian men have 
said about Jesus, from what they knew of 
him, here in this world. 

When John Newton was thinking of him, 
he said — 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


35 


“How sweet tlie name of Jesus sounds 
In a believer’s ears ! 

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 

And drives away his fears.” 

A good Koman Catholic who lived more 
than six hundred years ago, expressed his 
feelings thus — 

“Jesus, the very thought of thee, 

With sweetness fills my breast, 

But sweeter far thy face to see, 

And in thy bosom rest. 

“Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame, 

Nor can the memory find 
A sweeter sound than thy blest name, 

O Saviour of mankind.” 

When Dr. Doddridge was thinking about 
him he said — 

“Jesus, I love thy charming name, 

’Tis music to my ear; 

Fain would I sound it out so loud 
That earth and heaven might hear. 

“All my capacious powers can wish 
In thee doth richly meet, 

Not to my eyes is light so dear, 

Nor friendship half so sweet.” 


36 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


And Charles Wesley when thinking about 
him burst out thus — 

“0, for a thousand tongues to sing 
My great Redeemer’s praise ! 

The glories of my God and King, 

The triumphs of his grace ! 

“Jesus ! the name that calms our fears, 

That bids our sorrows cease; 

’Tis music in the sinner’s ears, 

’Tis life, and health, and peace.” 

When such men get to heaven it will not 
be the riches that adorn the place, nor the 
perfection of the company there that will 
make up its chief beauty to them. No, but 
it will be the person and presence of Jesus 
there, that will constitute the charm, the 
glory, the fullness of heaven’s joy to their 
souls. And this is just what Dr. Muhlen- 
berg speaks of in that beautiful hymn of his, 
in which heaven is spoken of as a place. 

“Where the saints of all ages in harmony meet, 

Their Saviour and brethren transported to greet, 
While the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, 

And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul." 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


37 


The person and presence of Jesus, and “the 
smile of the Lord,” both mean the same thing. 

We have one description given us in the 
Bible, of the person and presence of J esus in 
heaven. The apostle John saw a vision of 
heaven. He saw “the King in his beauty,” 
and this is what he says about it : — 

“ I saw seven golden candlesticks ; And in 
the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like 
unto the Son of Man, clothed with a gar- 
ment down to the foot, and girded with a 
golden girdle. His head and his hair were 
white like wool, as white as snow; and his 
eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet 
like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a 
furnace; and his voice as the sound of many 
waters. And he had in his right hand seven 
stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp 
two-edged sword; and his countenance was 
as the sun shining in his strength ” (Rev. i. 
12 - 17 ). 

And then, in addition to this description, 
in another place in the Bible, we have an 
illustration of how the person and presence 


38 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


of Jesus will appear in heaven. I refer here 
to the Transfiguration of our Saviour. There 
is Jesus on the top of Mount Tabor, if that 
was the place. His three disciples, Peter, 
and James, and John, are with him. As 
they look at him, they see a wondrous 
change take place in his appearance. He 
is transfigured before them, his raiment be- 
comes exceeding white as snow, a whiteness 
such as no one in the world could impart. 
His countenance changes, too, till it shines 
like the sun — and a glory is beaming around 
him such as was never seen in the sun. And 
Moses and Elias are seen there in glory 
too — and the voice of God is heard speaking 
there. This Transfiguration scene took place 
in order to give us an idea of what heaven 
will be. When our “eyes see the King in 
his beauty,” we shall see him as he appeared 
on the Mount of Transfiguration. 

And then, all the beauty that we see, in 
this world around us, is but a glimpse, or 
reflection, of the richer beauty that we shall 
see in Jesus. The beauty of the sun, and 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


39 


stars, and light; the beauty of the sky, the 
clouds, the seasons; the beauty of moun- 
tains, hills, and plains; the beauty of birds, 
and beasts, and insects; the beauty of trees, 
and plants, and flowers, — and all the beauty 
that we see everywhere is only a shadow, 
a type, or reflection, of the beauty that we 
shall see in Jesus when we get to heaven. 
We shall find the place glorious, and the 
company perfect; but the chief beauty and 
blessedness of heaven will be in the person 
and presence of Jesus. 

A Sunday-school teacher was visiting one 
of her scholars who was soon to die. The 
sick child was a Christian. She expressed 
an earnest desire to go to heaven. 

“Why do you wish so much to go there, 
Mary?” asked her teacher. 

“Because Jesus is there, and I. long so to 
see him.” 

“But suppose, Mary, that when you get 
there, you should find that Jesus was going 
out of heaven, what would you do?” 

“ I would go out with him ” — was her quick 


40 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


reply. She felt that there could be no heaven 
to her, without Jesus. 

“Thine eyes shall see the king in his 
beauty.” Remember, there are three things 
with which this beauty will be connected. 
These are — the place — the company — and the 
person and presence of Jesus. 

There is one very important lesson we 
should learn from this subject; it is this: we 
must learn to love Jesus here, or else his presence 
in heaven will not make us happy. 

We see this lesson illustrated in the Hin- 
doo fable about the crane. The fable says 
that one day a crane was contentedly eating 
snails in a marsh. As she was thus engaged 
a bird flew down from the sky, and lighted 
near her. “Where do you come from?” 
asked the crane. “From heaven,” was the 
answer. 

“What have you seen in heaven?” asked 
the crane. “ Every thing that can make peo- 
ple happy.” And then the bird went on and 
described some of the joys of that blessed 
place. 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


41 


“Have they any snails in heaven?” asked 
the crane, as much as to say — “ I don’t care 
to be in any place where there are no snails.” 

“You vulgar, low-bred creature!” said the 
bird, and flew away offended. 

Now suppose that this crane had been taken 
to heaven ; would it have been happy there ? 
Not at all. It would have been longing, all 
the time, for the marsh where it used to wade 
and catch snails. We must be prepared for 
heaven, if we hope to be happy there. And 
there is only one true preparation. This is 
— learning to Icnow, and love Jesus. If we 
really love him we shall be perfectly happy 
to be where he is. And when our “ eyes see 
the King in his beauty,” that will satisfy us 
forever. We shall want nothing else. That 
will be a perfect heaven to us. 




II. 

THE BEAUTY OP THE KING. 



II. 

THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 

“ The kingdom of God is — righteousness , and peace , and joy 
in the Holy Ghost” — Romans xiv. 17. 

Our last sermon was from a text that took 
us up to heaven, and led us to look at “ the 
King in his beauty.” Now we have a text 
that brings us down to earth again, and leads 
us to look at the beauty in the King. Jesus 
will have a kingdom in our world that will 
be wondrously beautiful. It will be differ- 
ent from any kingdom ever yet known in 
the world. This is what Jesus taught us to 
pray for, when he put into that wonderful 
prayer — “The Lord’s Prayer” — these words, 
“ Thy kingdom come.” But I am not going 
to talk of that kingdom now. The Bible says 
a great many things concerning it. Some of 
these are hard to be understood, and good 
and wise men have very different opinions 
about the meaning of those things. 


46 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


But Jesus is a king now , in one sense. 
He rules in the hearts of his people. He 
has a kingdom there. And there is very 
much that is interesting, and beautiful about 
this kingdom. This is what the apostle Paul 
is speaking of, in our text, when he says — 
“The kingdom of God is — not meat and 
drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy 
in the Holy Ghost.” 

Jesus is often spoken of in the Bible as a 
King. David, in the book of Psalms repre- 
sents God as saying of him — “Yet have I 
set my King, upon my holy hill of Zion” 
(Ps. ii. 6). The prophet Isaiah often speaks 
of Jesus as a King. This is what he means 
when he says — “Behold a King shall reign, 
and prosper; and — shall be as a refuge from 
the storm, a covert from the tempest; as riv- 
ers of water in a dry place, as the shadow 
of a great rock in a weary land ” (Isa. xxxii. 
1, 2). And when the angel Gabriel came to 
the virgin mother of Jesus, to tell her about 
his birth, he spoke of him as a King. “And 
the Lord God,” these were the angel’s words, 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


47 


“ shall give unto him the throne of his father 
David, and he shall reign over the house of 
Jacob forever” (Luke i. 32). 

Now let us look at Jesus from this point 
of view and see what beauty there is in him 
as a King. The beauty of Jesus as a King 1 
this is our subject. And the question we 
must try to answer is this; what sort of a 
kingdom does Jesus have now? or, what 
does he do for those who belong to his 
kingdom? And when we understand what 
this is — we shall see what great beauty there 
is in Jesus as a King. 

In our present text, the apostle Paul tells 
us of three things that Jesus, as a King, does 
for his people now. 

The first thing that Jesus does for those who 
belong to his kingdom is — to make them good. 

The apostle Paul tells us in our text that 
the kingdom of Jesus is a kingdom of right- 
eousness. Righteousness here means good- 
ness. And what we are taught is that Je- 
sus is a King who makes all his subjects, 
or those that belong to his kingdom, good. 


48 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


0, if all earthly kings were able to do this, 
and were really trying to do it, how much 
beauty we should see in them! But they 
can not do this. Keally good kings like 
King Solomon in Israel, or Alfred the Great, 
or Edward the Sixth in England, try to do 
good to their people in some way or other. 
But as for undertaking to make the people 
belonging to their kingdoms all good, this 
is what they never pretend to do. It would 
be impossible. But what is impossible with 
earthly kings, Jesus, the heavenly King, real- 
ly does. He is the good King. His king- 
dom is a good kingdom, and every one who 
belongs to it he makes good. The prophet 
Isaiah is speaking of this kingdom when he 
says — “Thy people shall be all righteous ,” or 
good (Isa. lx. 21). And Jesus tells us how 
he will do this. He says, “A new heart 
also will I give them, and a new spirit will 
I put within them” (Ezek. xxxvi. 26). “And 
I will put my law in their inward parts, and 
write it in their hearts, and I will be their 
God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


49 


xxxi. 33). And when Jesus does this for 
all his people it may well be said that he 
makes them good. Now let us look at some 
examples, or specimens, of people who are 
the subjects of this King, and of the way 
in which he makes them good. 

THE PENITENT BOY THIEF. 

On a heap of chips and shavings, in a gar- 
ret, a Christian man, visiting among the poor 
of London, found a boy about ten years old. 
He was pale, but with a very sweet face. 

“What are you doing here, my boy?” ho 
asked. 

“ Hush ! hush ! I’m hiding.” 

“ Hiding ? What for ? ” The poor boy 
rolled up his ragged shirt-sleeve, and showed 
his thin white arm all black and blue with 
bruises. 

“ Who was it beat you like that ? ” 

“ Don’t tell — but my father did it.” 

“What for?” 

“ Father gets drunk, and beats me because 
I won’t steal.” 

4 


50 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“ Did you ever steal ? ” 

“Yes, sir; I used to steal once.” 

“ Then why don’t you steal now? ” 

“Because I went to the Sunday-school, 
and there I learned about the God of heaven, 
and how his law says, '‘Thou shalt not steal .’ 
I will never steal any more, even if father 
kills me.” 

That little boy thief had become one of 
the subjects of Jesus, and he had made him 
good. 

HOW MATTIE LEARNED TO SERVE GOD. 

A little girl, named Mattie, made up her 
mind to try and become a Christian. She 
got up the next morning, and resolved to 
look out for some great thing to do, in order 
to show her love to Jesus. But the day 
passed away without her finding any thing 
great to do ; and at the close of the day she 
felt very much discouraged. So she put on 
her bonnet, and went to her Aunt Jennie’s, 
at the other end of the village. She sat 
down on the piazza, and leaned her head 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


51 


on her hand, and seemed very thoughtful. 
By and by, her aunt came and sat down by 
her side. She took hold of her hand and 
gently said — 

“What’s the matter with you, Mattie?” 

“ Why, auntie,” she said, “ I want to serve 

the Lord Jesus, and I have been looking all 

the day to find some great thing to do for 
* 

him, but I have not found any.” 

“Ah! Mattie dear,” said her aunt, “you 
are just making the same mistake that so 
many other persons have made before.” 

“ What mistake, auntie ? ” 

“Why the mistake of thinking you can 
only serve God by doing great things. Now 
suppose, that instead of waiting all day for 
something great to do, you had begun in 
the morning by asking Jesus to help you 
to be useful; and then had tried to help 
mother in sweeping the room; or amusing 
the baby ; or helping Mary in the kitch- 
en; and then had gone to work and learned 
that long lesson well, you would have found 
plenty to do all day.” 


52 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“Well, auntie, but those are such little 
things.” 

“I know it, Mattie; but then life is made 
up of little things. Now I want you to go 
home, and try this plan to-morrow, and see 
how it works.” 

Mattie went home wiser than she came. 
She began the next day as her auntie told 
her. 

Before leaving her room, in the morn- 
ing, she found work to do for Jesus. When 
her mother came up to make Mattie’s bed, 
she was surprised to find the bed made, and 
the room all in the nicest order. When Mat- 
tie went down-stairs she found work to do 
for Jesus there. All day long, wherever she 
went, there was something for her to do. 
And the thought that she was doing it for 
Jesus made it all sweet, and pleasant to her. 
She was as busy as a bee, and as bright as 
a sunbeam all the day. 

At the close of the afternoon, when she 
was going up to her room, her mother laid 
her hand gently on her shoulder and said, 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


53 


“ Mattie, darling, you have been a real com- 
fort and blessing to me to-day.” 

This filled Mattie’s eyes with tears, but 
they were tears of joy and gladness. And 
as she knelt down in her room to thank God 
for helping her to serve him, the sun never 
shone upon a happier girl than Mattie was 
that evening. 

And here we see how Jesus makes his 
people good. 

And sometimes, when people have gone 
very far astray, Jesus makes them good by 
his grace, when nothing else could do it. 

HOW OLD JIM DRAYTON WAS MADE GOOD. 

There was a little town, in New England, 
in which a miserable drunkard lived. Every 
body there knew him as “ Old Jim Drayton.” 
He had once been a respectable mechanic. 
Then he had a neat little cottage as his 
home, and his family were very happy. But, 
since he had taken to drink, every thing had 
gone to ruin. The furniture had been sold 
for liquor. The broken window-panes were 


54 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


patched with pieces of newspaper; or stuffed 
with bundles of rags and bunches of straw. 
His wife looked sorrowful and broken-heart- 
ed, and his children were covered with rags. 

Jim himself went reeling about the village 
with a battered hat, and ragged clothes, and 
a bloated, stupid-looking face. He went to 
the tavern, one New Year’s eve, intending to 
drink out the old year. The barkeeper was 
busy when he went in, and he sat down in 
a corner by himself. 

Presently two young men came in. They 
called for some beer. While they were drink- 
ing it one of them said; “I say, Bill, did 
you hear that old Jim Drayton had cut his 
throat ? ” 

“ It’s good news, if it’s true,” said the other. 
“ No one will miss the old sot, not even his 
family. They’d be better off without him. 
He’s just the lowest drunkard in town.” 

“Yes, I’ve often wondered why he didn’t 
jump into the river,” said the other. “If I 
ever get as low, and ragged, and mean, as 
Jim Drayton I’ll shoot myself.” 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


55 


Old Jim heard every word. He was quite 
sober. He leaned his back against the wall, 
pulled his hat over his face, and thought 
of what he heard. “ Have I got so low as 
this?” he said to himself. “ Would my death 
be a relief to my family, and to the town? 
Then it’s time for me to stop.” As he sat 
there he offered this silent prayer — “ God 
help me to quit drinking, and be a new 
man ! ” 

Just then the barkeeper sung out — “0 
Jim, do you want a drink?” 

Jim sprang to his feet, and said; “No, I’m 
going to swear off from drinking from this 
hour ! ” 

“That’s good,” they all exclaimed, “Old 
Jim Drayton going to quit drinking — ha! 
ha! ha!” 

“ I’ll do it, by the help of God,” said Jim, 
striking his fist on the counter. Then he 
left the tavern. 

He went directly home. At the gate, 
which led to his dwelling, he stopped for 
a moment, and saw what a wretched-look- 


56 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


ing home it was ; and how different from 
what it had once been! As his wife heard 
the door open, she turned away to hide 
herself, afraid to meet him in his drunken 
wrath. 

“ Mary, come here,” he said as he closed 
the door, and held out his hand — “ I am not 
drunk to-night.” 

She came slowly up to him, wondering 
what it meant. 

“Mary,” he said, as he clasped her hand, 
“I hav’n’t drunk a drop to-night.” 

“ Oh ! James ! ” she exclaimed, as she threw 
her arms round his neck, and sobbed aloud. 

“They call me old Jim Drayton, and say 
I’m only a burden to my family, and the 
town, and that I can’t reform,” he went on, 
“but I’m going to stop drinking — I have 
stopped.” His poor wife’s heart was too full 
to speak. “From this night, as long as I 
live,” he continued, “I’ll be James Drayton 
again, — sober — steady — a kind husband, a 
good father. Now, Mary, go wake up the 
children, and let us all pray together.” 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


57 


“Is father going to kill us?” they whis- 
pered as their mother woke them up. 

“No — no — he’s sober now, he’s going to 
be a dear good father again,” she sobbed. 

At midnight the voice of prayer, bro- 
ken by loud sobs, was heard in that drunk- 
ard’s home, and old Jim Drayton kneeling 
in the midst of his weeping family said — 
“God forgive me for the past; and help me 
to be a good husband and father for the 
future.” 

And God did hear him, and help him too. 
And from that hour he kept his vow ; and be- 
came a sober, industrious, useful man. And 
the grace of God which was sufficient to re- 
form, and save, a wretched drunkard like 
Jim Drayton, and make a good man of him, 
is able to do the same for any one. 

There is great beauty in Jesus as a King, 
because of what he does for all who belong 
to his kingdom. The first thing he does for 
them is to make them good. 

The second thing he does for them is to make 
them — peaceful. 


58 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“The kingdom of God is righteousness and 
— peace." 

Jesus, the head of this kingdom, is the 
Prince of peace. The Gospel which tells 
about this kingdom is — “ The Gospel of peace." 
The ministers of this kingdom are sent out 
— “ preaching peace through Jesus Christ.” 
And the people who belong to this king- 
dom are commanded to — “ follow peace with 
all men." 

This kingdom of peace is intended, by 
and by, to fill the whole world. Then, we 
are told that men will “beat their swords 
into ploughshares, and their spears into prun- 
ing hooks, and the nations shall learn war 
no more.” Then earthquakes will no more 
alarm and destroy. Storms will no more 
burst ; nor tempests blow ; and all nature 
will be at peace. Even the wild animals 
will lose their fierceness, and share in this 
blessing of peace. Isaiah says, at that time 
— “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, 
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; 
and the calf and the young lion and the 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


59 


fatling together; and a little child shall lead 
them” (Isa. xi. 6). 

And now , before that “ good time ” comes, 
Jesus teaches all who wish to serve him, 
and belong to his kingdom, to be kind, 
loving, and gentle; and try to make peace 
with those about them. Now let us look at 
some examples of the way in which those 
who have Jesus for their King try to make 
peace. 

Freddie’s prayer. 

A little boy, named Freddie, was going 
home at the close of a day in winter. A 
mantle of pure white snow was spread over 
the fields, and woods, as he walked along. 
It was about sunset, and as the beams of 
the sun fell on the landscape they covered 
it with golden glory. Every thing around 
seemed beautiful. There was no cloud in 
the sky, but there was a cloud on Fred- 
die’s face. When he got into the house he 
stamped his foot, and seemed to be very 
angry about something or other. 


60 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“What’s the matter, Freddie?” asked his 
mother. 

“It’s that ugly old boy, Bennie Jones, 
mother. I hate him. He’s always hurting 
me — and just on purpose too.” 

“But,” said his mother, “nobody teaches 
him better. Freddie must pray for him.” 

“ But Freddie won’t,” — and his eyes flashed 
fire. His mother said nothing more about 
it then, but talked about something else. 

Pretty soon came bed-time, and the bed- 
time story; for Freddie’s mother always had 
some nice Bible story to tell him, before he 
went to sleep. This night it was the story 
of Jesus on Calvary. She spoke of the wick- 
ed cruelty of the men who mocked him ; and 
scourged him; and nailed him to the cross. 
She told of his dreadful sufferings, as he hung 
bleeding there ; yet of his patience under all, 
and of his wonderful love for his murderers, 
which led him to pray for them, in the midst 
of his pain and sorrow, and say : 

“Father forgive them, for they know not 
what they do.” 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


61 


Freddie listened eagerly till his mother 
had finished. Then he gently said; “I’ll say 
my prayers now, mother, please; and I think 
TU pray for Bennie Jones first . ” 

So the little prayer was offered, and Fred- 
die went to bed, with a face bright as sun- 
shine. Every unkind feeling was taken out 
of his heart. The spirit of Jesus, which is a 
spirit of peace was filling it. There is beau- 
ty in Jesus as a King, because he makes his 
people loving and peacefuL 

BEATING SATAN. 

The apostle Paul says — “ If it be possible, 
as much as lieth in you , live peaceably with 
all men.” It always takes two people to 
make a quarrel. It is not the first angry 
word, or the first blow, that leads to a quar- 
rel. It is the second word, or the second 
blow, that always makes the quarrel. If we 
refuse to speak the second word, or strike 
the second blow, then the persons who want 
to make the quarrel will have it all to them- 
selves. And as the boys say — “there’s no 


62 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


fun in this”; and so this is the way to pre- 
vent quarrels. 

Some time ago, a man was converted in 
New Hampshire, and afterwards became a 
minister of the Gospel. Before becoming a 
Christian he was well known, in the neigh- 
borhood where he lived, as a man of very 
violent temper, over which he had no con- 
trol. At the very time of his conversion he 
had an unsettled dispute with one of his 
neighbors. They had often talked it over, 
and it always ended in their both getting 
very angry about it. When this man’s neigh- 
bor heard that he had joined the church, he 
called at his house to talk over their old 
dispute, and to see if he could not make him 
angry, and get up a quarrel with him, as 
easily as he used to do before he became a 
Christian. He began at once by abusing 
him with great violence, and throwing all 
the blame of the old quarrel upon him. 

Not an angry word was spoken in re- 
ply. This provoked him more than ever. 
He cursed and swore in a dreadful man- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


63 


ner. Still the Christian was calm and silent. 
Then enraged beyond measure at the man’s 
coolness; his angry neighbor raised his cane, 
and struck him a blow with it. And still 
the Christian did not lose his temper, but 
remained calm and quiet. 

“Why,” exclaimed the angry man in his 
astonishment, “you beat old Satan himself”! 

“ That’s what I mean to do,” said the good 
man coolly, “and this is just the way in 
which I’m going to do it.” 

There was no second angry word, or blow 
here, and so there was no quarrel. The 
angry man went back to his home. But 
as he went he said to himself — 

“Well, there must be something in relig- 
ion more than I know about. I guess it’s 
time for me to look into it.” 

0, there is beauty in the King who can 
make his people practice “the things that 
make for peace,” in such a way as this! 


64 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


THE NEIGHBORS AND THE HENS. 

A Christian man, in New Jersey, belonged 
to this kingdom of peace, and he gives us 
this account of his own experience about 
the effect produced by a patient, peaceful 
example. 

“I once had a number of fowls. Gen- 
erally they were kept shut up. But, one 
spring, I concluded to clip their wings so 
that they could not fly, and let them run 
in my yard. One day, when I came home 
to dinner, I found that one of my neigh- 
bors had been there, full of anger, to say 
that my hens had been in his garden, and 
that he had killed several of them, and had 
thrown them into my yard. It made me 
very angry to think that he should have 
killed my beautiful hens, that I valued so 
much. I determined at once to be revenged. 
I would go to law with him, or make him 
smart for it in some way. 

“I sat down and ate my dinner as calmly 
as I could. Before dinner was over I be- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


65 


came cooler. I said to myself — ‘ Is it the 
best way for a Christian man to quarrel 
with his neighbor, and make a lasting ene- 
my of him about such a trifling thing as 
two or three hens? Jesus said — ‘Learn of 
me.’ How would Jesus have me act? What 
would he do if he were in my place ? ’ 

“ So I changed my mind about the matter. 
After dinner I called at my neighbor’s house. 
He was in his garden. I went out and found 
him chasing one of my hens, with a stick in 
his hand, trying to kill it. I said to him, 

“‘Neighbor, look here,’ he turned round 
and looked at me. With his face all flam- 
ing with anger, he exclaimed: — ‘You have 
injured me, sir. I’ll kill every hen you’ve 
got, if I can catch them. They have ruined 
my garden, sir.’ 

“ ‘ I am very sorry for it,’ said I. ‘I do 
not wish to injure you; I see now that I 
have made a great mistake in letting my 
hens out. I ask your pardon, and am will- 
ing to pay you six times the damage they 
have done.’ 

5 


66 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“You ought to have seen that man. He 
was completely confounded. As the sailors 
say ‘he was taken all aback.’ He did not 
know what to make of it. He looked up to 
the sky, then down to the ground; then he 
looked at me, then at his stick, then at the 
poor hen he was trying to kill, and he had 
not a word to say. 

“‘Tell me now,’ I said, ‘what is the dam- 
age, and I will pay you sixfold, and my 
hens shall never trouble you any more. I 
leave it entirely with you to say what I 
shall pay. I can not afford to lose the 
good-will of my neighbors, and quarrel with 
them for hens, or any thing else.’ 

“ By this time the man had found his 
tongue. ‘Neighbor,’ said he, ‘I’m a great 
fool. The damage isn’t worth talking about. 
Won’t you pardon me? I thank you for the 
lesson you have taught me about good sense 
and practical wisdom.’ ” 

Here we see what the spirit of the Gos- 
pel is. How much beauty there is in the 
King who can make his people act in such 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


67 


a way as this! The second thing that Jesns 
does for his people is to make them peaceful. 

This shows us the beauty there is in Jesus 
as a King. 

But there is a third thing that Jesus does 
for his people. He makes them — happy. 

And here, too, we see what beauty there 
is in him as a King. 

What a wonderful thing it would be, if 
any earthly king had the power of making 
all the people belonging to his kingdom 
happy! This is what no king ever under- 
took to do. But Jesus is able, and willing 
to do it. And this is what is meant in 
our text, when it says that — “the kingdom 
of God is ” — or consists of — “joy in the Holy 
Ghost.” Joy in the Holy Ghost means the 
best kind of happiness. Jesus prayed for 
his people — John xvii. 13 — that they might 
all be filled with the same sort of joy that 
he has. That must certainly be the best 
kind of happiness. 

Let us see what Jesus does to make his 
people happy. 


68 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


LITTLE TANGLES. 

There was once a king, who employed a 
great many of his people to work for him, 
as weavers. The silk, and the patterns, were 
all given by the king. He told the work- 
ers, when they met with any trouble, to send 
for him, and he would come and help them ; 
and that they never need be afraid of troub- 
ling him. 

Many persons, men, women, and children, 
were busy at the looms. Among these was 
a little girl, who always seemed bright, and 
cheerful, over her work, though she was often 
left to do it all alone. One day some of the 
weavers were very much troubled about their 
work. Their threads were tangled and bro- 
ken, and the work they were finishing was 
not like the patterns given them to copy. 
Then they gathered round the cheerful little 
girl, and said: — 

“Tell us how it is that you are always 
so happy in your work, while we are con- 
stantly getting into trouble ? ” 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


69 


“ Why, I always send to the king when I 
am in trouble,” said the little weaver. “You 
know he told us we might do so.” 

“ So we do,” they said, “ every night and 
morning.” 

“ Ah ! ” said the child, “ but I send directly, 
as soon as I find that I get into a little tan- 
gle. So I always get help at once, and this 
saves a great deal of trouble.” 

This was the secret of her being so cheer- 
ful and happy. And this is what J esus wants 
us to do. He says in one place — “ Call upon 
me, in the day of trouble, and I will deliver 
thee ; and thou shalt glorify me ” (Ps. 1. 15). 
And in another place he says — “ Casting all 
your care on him , for he careth for you ” (I 
Peter v. 7). 

It is a beautiful thing to think of Jesus 
as a King who is able and willing to help 
his people when they are in trouble. This 
is one of the ways in which he makes them 
happy. 


70 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


THE ROBBER CRIPPLE. 

Some years ago an English missionary was 
stationed in Asia Minor. On one occasion, 
he sent two men connected with his mission 
on a journey, through the Tauras Mountains. 
They took with them a lot of Bibles, which 
they were to give away, in the villages, wher- 
ever they could find people who were will- 
ing to receive them. 

One day these men stopped under a tree to 
rest. While they were resting, one of these 
men took out a Bible, and read a chapter 
for himself and his companion. It was the 
third chapter of St. John, about the conver- 
sation between Jesus and Nicodemus. 

Sitting by the hedge, near them, was an 
old man. He was a beggar and a cripple. 
His hands were withered, and his elbows 
stiff, and only a few rags covered his body. 
But more than this he was a very wicked 
man. He had been a robber and a mur- 
derer. He had been connected with many 
scenes of violence and blood. But now he 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


71 


was old, and poor, and friendless. He was 
as wretched a man as could be found any- 
where, with no hope either for this world or 
the next. 

Well, this wretched old man was sitting 
near the Bible distributers on that day. He 
heard the chapter from the Bible read. He 
had never heard the Bible before. It had a 
wonderful effect upon him. The 16th verse 
of that chapter, especially,* took great hold of 
his mind. “ God so loved the world that he 
gave his only begotten Son , that whosoever believ- 
eth on him should not perish , but have everlast- 
ing life." He thought these were the sweet- 
est words he had ever heard. He repeated 
them to himself, so as to fix them in his 
memory. The Bible men went on their way, 
without taking any notice of the old beggar 
cripple. But he was saying those wonder- 
ful words, over and over, to himself. The 
thought that God loved him, and cared for 
him, softened his hard heart. He thought 
about his sins, and was filled with distress. 
He cried for mercy all the time. He spoke 


72 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


to the people in the village about the won- 
derful words he had heard. But they only 
laughed at him, and thought he was crazy. 

Still he kept crying to God, confessing his 
sins, and praying for mercy. And God heard 
and answered his prayer. He found peace 
and pardon. This filled him with joy. The 
poor old lame beggar, was as happy as the 
day was long. He was as poor as ever; and 
as lame as ever; but the thought that Jesus 
loved him, and had died to save him, made 
him happy. 

After awhile the missionary came along 
where the Bible distributers had been. He 
had heard of the old beggar, and thought 
he would try and comfort him. But instead 
of this the old man comforted the missionary, 
and taught him a new lesson, about the won- 
ders of God’s grace and love. Here was an 
old man, who had never seen a missionary 
before ; had never heard a sermon ; and never 
attended a religious meeting, but who was 
made perfectly happy in the midst of all his 
poverty, loneliness, and infirmity, by simply 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


73 


reading God’s word, and having faith in Je- 
sus as his Saviour. O, there is wonderful 
beauty in Jesus as a King, when we see 
how he can make people happy under such 
circumstances. 

HAPPY IN DEATH. 

There is no time when we are in greater 
need of something to make us happy than 
when we are going to die. Yet Jesus can 
take away the sting from death, and make 
his people so happy that they do not fear 
death. 

Some time ago there was a young man in 
England, about eighteen years of age, who 
met his death suddenly and unexpectedly; 
but who was peaceful and happy in meeting 
it, by the help that Jesus gave him. This 
young man was the son of a clergyman. 
His father’s house was near the sea. He 
was very fond of rambling on the sea-shore, 
and searching for beautiful specimens of sea- 
weed. One day he was on the shore, as 
usual, gathering specimens. The tide was 


74 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


low. There was a ledge of rocks very full 
of sea-weeds. These rocks could only be 
reached at the lowest stage of the tide. The 
young man got on these rocks. Here he 
found great quantities of the most beautiful 
specimens. He was so much interested in 
gathering them that he quite forgot to watch 
how the tide was coming in. When he had 
gathered as much as he wanted of the sea- 
weed, he looked round to see about getting 
off from the rocks ; and then, to his surprise, 
he found the water had risen so high, be- 
tween him and the shore, that it was impos- 
sible for him to get off. He could not swim, 
and it was too deep for him to wade. He 
looked about him; but there was no one in 
sight. At the top of his voice he shouted 
— “ Help ! help ! ” but there was none near 
enough to hear. Then he saw that he must 
die. Taking out his pocket Bible he wrote 
on the blank leaf as follows : — “ In danger 
— surrounded by water : if help does not 
come soon, I must be drowned. But Jesus, 
to whom I gave myself five years ago, is 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING. 


75 


with me. I am perfectly happy. May he 
bless and comfort my beloved parents, and 
bring my dear little brothers and sisters to 
himself, so that we may all meet in heaven.” 

Then he calmly waited till the rising wa- 
ters swept him from the rocks, and he was 
taken to heaven. The next day his body 
was found, and the hearts of his sorrowing 
parents were greatly comforted by those last 
sweet words written in his Bible. 

It is a beautiful thing to think of Jesus 
as a King who can make his people happy 
under circumstances so sad as those in which 
this young man found himself. No one else 
can do this but Jesus. He is a King who 
can make his people good , and peaceful, and 
happy. And for these reasons we may well 
speak of the wonderful beauty there is in 
Jesus as a King. And if we learn to love 
and serve him we shall find that he is not 
only beautiful in himself, but that he has 
the power to make us beautiful, too, for we 
shall “ see him as he is, and shall he like him." 









. 


















































t 







III. 

THE KING IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS 
KINGDOM. 



III. 


THE KING IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS 
KINGDOM. 

“His kingdom ruleth over all." — Psalm ciii. 19. 

We have spoken of the beauty of Jesus 
as a King. He makes all his people good, 
and peaceable, and happy. And a king who 
really can do this, for all his subjects, ap- 
pears very beautiful to us. And the words 
of David in our present text call us to look 
at the kingdom of Jesus. He has a kingdom 
noiv. The Bible tells us that he is seated 
at the right hand of God the Father. And 
he sits there as King. “The government 
is upon his shoulder.” It is easier for us 
to think of Jesus as a poor man, than as a 
great King. * We read of him as “the man of 
sorrows, and acquainted with grief” ; we know 
that he was so poor that, “ though the foxes 
had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, 


80 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


yet he had not where to lay his head.” We 
think of him as healing the sick ; and raising 
the dead; and working many miracles as “he 
went about doing good.” All this is easy for 
us to think about; but it is not so easy for 
us to think about Jesus as having a great 
kingdom ; yet this is what we must now try 
to do. 

When we hear people talking about gov- 
ernments, or kingdoms, we are very apt to 
think, “Well, these are not things that are 
of any importance to us as children. Men 
and women may attend to these things ; but 
they are not for us to think of, or care much 
about.” Well, if it were the kingdom of 
England, or the government of France, or 
Germany, or Kussia, or China, that we were 
talking about, then it would be true. We, 
as children, would have no interest in those 
kingdoms or governments. It would make 
very little difference to us whether those 
kingdoms were good or bad. But when we 
come to talk about the kingdom that Jesus 
has, it is very different. We are all inter- 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 81 


ested in this kingdom. It has something 
to do with every one of us. From the oldest 
scholar in one of our Bible-classes, down to 
the youngest scholar in the infant school, 
we should all wish to know about this king- 
dom. This kingdom has a great deal to do 
with every one of us. We should all try to 
find out what sort of a kingdom it is. And 
this is what we wish now to speak of. I 
want to show that there is great beauty in 
the kingdom of Jesus. This is our subject 
now: The beauty of Christ's kingdom. 

There are three reasons why it is beautiful. 

In the first place , the kingdom of Jesus is a 
beautiful kingdom because it rules over — all the 

GREATEST THINGS. 

One of the greatest things that we know 
of, is this world that we live on. If we 
could take a line, and go all round the out- 
side of the world, and measure it, we should 
find that line about twenty-four thousand 
miles long. If we could bore a hole, right 
through the earth, from just where we stand 
to the other side of it, and then drop a line 
6 


82 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


through, we should find that line — measuring 
the diameter of the earth — would be about 
eight thousand miles in length. This vast 
world is full of rocks, and sand, and earth, 
and water. How big this world is ! How 
hard it must be to move it ! Why, if the 
world should stand still, all the men that 
ever lived, with all the horses to help them, 
and all the steam engines ever made, if they 
were all put together, could not move the 
world a single inch; no, nor the hundredth 
part of an inch. But Jesus, in his beautiful 
kingdom, moves this great world a great 
deal easier than you, or I, can bend our little 
finger. 

But though this world, that we live in, 
seems so great to us, it is really a very lit- 
tle world, compared to some others. Yonder 
is the great sun, that shines upon us every 
day. That is a world too. And it is a much 
larger world than ours. It is so much larger 
that a million of worlds like ours could be 
put inside of it. For us to say a million is 
a very easy thing. But it is not so easy 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 83 

to understand just what a million means. 
Suppose we should begin, to-morrow morn- 
ing at six o’clock, to count. And suppose 
that we should count about as fast as the 
clock ticks — one, two, three, four, and so on. 
And then suppose we should go on count- 
ing, at that rate, till six o’clock at night, 
without stopping to eat, or to drink, or to 
rest. This would be counting for a day of 
twelve hours. We could only count, in this 
w'ay, about forty-three thousand a day. And 
at this rate it would take us twenty-three 
days, or more than three weeks, to count a 
million, spending twelve hours each day in 
the work. Now suppose there was a great 
hole in the side of the sun, like a bung- 
hole in a hogshead. And suppose that God 
should set you and me to fill up the sun, 
by dropping into it worlds like ours, just 
as we might fill up a hogshead by drop- 
ping pebbles into the bung-hole. And sup- 
pose that we were able to pick up worlds 
like ours as easily as we can pick up peb- 
bles. Well now, we take our stand by that 


84 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


hole in the side of the sun, and try to fill 
it up. We begin to drop in worlds. As 
fast as the clock ticks, we drop them in — 
one, two, three, four, five, six. Sixty a min- 
ute — thirty-six hundred an hour, forty-three 
thousand for a day of twelve hours, we keep 
on at this work. It would take us more 
than twenty-three days, working on at the 
same rate, to fill up the sun by putting into 
it a million of worlds like ours. O, how 
wonderfully great that sun must be ! And 
yet Jesus, in his kingdom, rules that sun. 
He tells it to shine ; and it does shine. He 
tells it to keep on shining; and it keeps on 
shining. When we look up to the sky at 
night, you ' know how many stars we see 
shining there. Many of them are worlds 
as large as our sun. Some of them are 
larger. But the kingdom of Jesus rules 
over all those worlds. They all obey him. 
They move just where he tells them to 
move. They do just what he tells them 
to do. 

And then let us look away from the 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 85 


worlds to the angels. They are wonderful 
for their greatness. David says — “they ex- 
cel in strength ” (Psalm ciii. 20). Samson, we 
know, was the strongest man that ever lived. 
But if the world were full of men like Sam- 
son, one angel would have more strength 
than all of them put together. Just think, 
for a moment, of some of the things which 
we know that angels have done ; and which 
show us how wonderful their strength is. 

When God wished to destroy Sodom and 
Gomorrah, he sent an angel to do it. It was 
an angel that let loose that storm of fire, by 
which the guilty cities of the plain were 
burnt up and destroyed. 

When God wished to deliver the children 
of Israel out of Egypt, he sent an angel 
to do it. The angel passed over the land 
of Egypt that night; and with his unseen 
sword smote all the first-born of the Egyp- 
tians both of man and beast. Some one was 
dead in every family; and one long, loud 
wail of sorrow was heard all through the 
land. 


86 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


It was an angel that blew the trumpet 
when God came down to give the Israelites 
the law on the top of Mount Sinai. And 
the blast of that trumpet made the earth 
shake, and the mountains tremble all around. 

When God wished to deliver Jerusalem 
from the army of the Assyrians, that was 
encamped against it, he sent an angel to 
do it. That angel passed over the Assyrian 
army at night, while they were asleep. He 
made no noise in passing; but quietly and 
silently he breathed, as it were, upon them. 
And with that breath he slew a hundred 
and eighty-five thousand men. 

When God wished to deliver the apostle 
Peter out of prison he sent an angel to do 
it. This angel came into the prison, where 
Peter was sleeping, and awoke him. Then 
he touched his chains, and they fell off from 
his limbs. As they were coming out of the 
prison, they came to a great iron gate, lead- 
ing into the city. This was made fast by 
bolts and bars. Before the angel touched 
it, before he came near to it, he made this 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 87 


gate open, in spite of all its fastenings, as 
if it were of its own accord. 

Here we see what single angels have done. 
But, when Jesus was going to be crucified, 
he said that if he should ask the Father 
in heaven, he would send him more than 
twelve legions of angels, to help him, and 
deliver him from his enemies. That would 
have been more than seventy thousand an- 
gels. All the angels in heaven worship Je- 
sus. They all serve and obey him. His king- 
dom ruleth over all the angels of heaven. 

And then, every thing else that is great and 
powerful is ruled by him. Storms and tem- 
pests, winds and waves, heat and cold, frost 
and snow, are his servants. His kingdom 
ruleth over all these. They all obey him. 
They do just what he tells them to do. 

When Jesus was on the Sea of Galilee in 
a storm, he fell asleep, while the storm was 
raging. His disciples thought the vessel 
was going to sink. In their fright they 
awoke him, and begged him to save them 
from being drowned. Jesus got up, went 


88 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


to the side of the vessel, and quietly spoke 
to the howling winds and foaming waves, 
saying — “Peace; be still.” They heard him. 
They obeyed him; “ and immediately there was 
a great calm.” And Jesus has just the same 
power to control winds, and waves, and all 
things now, that he had then. His kingdom 
ruleth over all the greatest things. He has 
“ all power in heaven, and on earth.” As the 
prophet Jeremiah says (ch. xxxii. 17) — “He 
made the heaven and the earth by his great 
power, and his outstretched arm; and noth- 
ing is too hard for him.” 

A vessel was at sea in a terrible storm 
some time ago. The captain gave up all hope 
of being able to save the ship, and told the 
passengers to prepare for the worst. Some 
were crying aloud and wringing their hands ; 
others were calling upon God to save them. 
Among these was a Christian man who re- 
mained perfectly calm. 

“How can you be so quiet in the midst 
of this fearful storm ! ” asked one of his fel- 
low-passengers. 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 89 


“ My Father in heaven is ruling this storm,” 
said the Christian. “ He can keep the vessel 
from sinking, if he sees best. If I sink, I 
shall still be in my Father’s hand. I know 
I am safe there. Why should I be afraid ? ” 

That was the right use to make of the sub- 
ject we are now talking about. The king- 
dom of Jesus is a beautiful kingdom because 
it rules over all the greatest things. 

But the kingdom, of Jesus is a beautiful king- 
dom, in the second place, because it rules over — 

ALL THE SMALLEST THINGS. 

On the one hand nothing is so great that 
he is unable to manage it; and on the other 
hand nothing is so little that he ever loses 
sight of it. He can put his hand of power 
on great worlds, and suns, and oceans, and 
rivers, and winds, and storms, and make 
them do just what he wishes them to do. 
And at the same time he makes use of 
the little rays of light, and the little grains 
of sand, to work for him too. What a lit- 
tle thing a drop of water is! How tiny it 
seems, as it hangs on the tip of your fin- 


90 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


ger! And yet, when God wished to form 
the mighty ocean, he made use of those tiny 
little drops for this purpose. What a little 
thing the pebble stone was that David put 
into his sling, when he went forth to fight 
that great giant of Gath! Yet God did more 
for Israel by that little pebble, than by all 
the thousands of swords and spears in the 
army of King Saul. What a little thing a 
coral insect is ! And yet God makes use of 
that tiny insect to do what all the great 
whales in the ocean never could do, — build 
up the coral islands from the bottom of the 
ocean. 

Now let us look at some examples of the 
way in which God makes use of very little 
things, to protect, and save his people, when 
they are in danger; and to comfort them 
when in trouble. 

SAVED FROM DEATH BY FIRE. 

Some years ago, a poor old colored woman 
lived in the town of West Chester, Chester 
County, Penn. She was confined to her bed, 


IN THE BEATUY OF HIS KINGDOM. 91 


a helpless cripple. Her home was a little 
house that stood by itself, where she lived 
all alone ; except that her son, who occasion- 
ally came to visit her, would occupy a room 
in her house for a night. A kind neighbor 
was in the habit of coming in every day to 
see her, and to do any thing that was neces- 
sary to be done. One cold winter’s night 
this neighbor came in as usual. She made 
every thing comfortable in the room, and 
then left for the night. 

About two o’clock in the morning, the old 
woman awoke, and found that a live coal had 
fallen from the grate, and had set fire to the 
rag carpet. It burned slowly on, and came 
nearer and nearer to the bed. There she lay, 
without being able to move hand or foot. 
There was no one near enough, as she sup- 
posed, to hear her, if she should call ever so 
loud. In speaking about it, afterwards, she 
said; “I told the Lord I was quite willing 
to die ; but if he was pleased to let me have 
my own way, I would rather not be burned 
to death. And then I waited.” The fire 


92 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


gradually crept nearer and nearer. The bed- 
stead was reached, and the bedclothes caught 
fire. It seemed impossible for her to be 
saved. But just then, the door opened. Her 
son came in, and she was saved! She did 
not know that he was in the house. As soon 
as she was able, she asked how he came 
there. He said he had returned home late 
and unexpectedly the night before. Finding 
her asleep he retired to his room and went 
to bed. He awoke just then, which he was 
not in the habit of doing, and fearing he 
might be late for his work, he came down to 
his mother’s room to see what o’clock it was ; 
and found he was just in time to save her 
from a dreadful death. He wondered how 
he happened to wake at that very moment. 
But his mother knew who wakened him. 

To wake a man out of sleep is a little 
thing, yet this is what Jesus — whose “king- 
dom ruleth over all,” did to save one of his 
people from a painful death. 

Here is another illustration of the same 
kind. 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 93 


One of the workmen, connected with the 
railway which runs from Hamburg to Paris, 
had a good pious wife. When her husband 
left home one day, to attend to his business, 
she said, as she was in the habit of doing, 
“ Good-by. May God protect you." This man 
was a signal-man. He was stationed at a 
little watch-house by the road-side. His bus- 
iness was, as the trains came along, to hoist 
a signal. There were two kinds of signals: 
one meant — go on — when all was right; the 
other — stop — when any thing was wrong. 
On the evening of the day of which we are 
speaking, he walked along his part of the 
road, to see that all was right, before the 
express train came by. Just as he was re- 
turning to his watch-house, he was attacked 
by two bad men who had a grudge against 
him, and wanted to kill him. They took 
hold of him; threw him down; bound him 
hand and foot so that he could not move; 
and gagged him so that he could not speak. 
Then they threw him across the rails, and 
tied him fast, in order that the express train, 


94 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


which was coming along, might pass over 
him in the dark and crush him. But that 
gracious Saviour, whose “ kingdom ruleth 
over all,” had heard the prayer of this man’s 
good wife — “God protect you”; and intend- 
ed to answer it. Let us see how he did this. 

While this horrible thing was taking place 
on the railway, the wife of the poor signal- 
man, was alone in her cottage. All at once, 
without knowing why, she began to feel 
very anxious about her husband. She be- 
came more and more uneasy, and tried to 
overcome the feeling; but in vain. At last 
she said to herself; “ I don’t know what this 
means; I never felt so before. Something’s 
the matter with my husband. I must go 
and see.” So she hurried off to the watch- 
house. She did not walk, but ran, till she 
reached the place. She hastened down the 
embankment. She entered the watch-house, 
but it was empty. Her husband was not 
there. She was terribly frightened. Where 
could he be? She called him again and 
again; but there was no answer. She ran, 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 95 


first to the right, and then to the left, look- 
ing for him ; but he was not there. What is 
the matter? Where can he be? The train 
is coming; she hears the whistle of the ap- 
proaching locomotive, and her husband is 
not at his post to give the expected signal. 
Almost wild with terror she hurries back to 
the watch-house, calling aloud for her hus- 
band all the while. Then the thought occurs 
to her that the signal must be hoisted up, 
or else her husband will be blamed for neg- 
lecting his duty. She hastens to the signal- 
post, and hoists up a signal. In a few min- 
utes the train comes thundering along; but, 
instead of rushing on, it stands still by the 
watch-house. She intended to hoist the sig- 
nal which meant — go on. If she had done 
so, her husband would have been a dead 
man in half a minute. But, instead of this, 
by mistake, she hoisted the signal which said 
— stop. And so the train stopped. It was 
God who guided her hand. The conductor 
of the train jumps out, hastens up, and in- 
quires what is the matter. He finds no sig- 


96 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


nal-man at the watch-house, but a weeping 
woman in great distress because she can not 
find her husband. Now lanterns are lighted 
and they go searching along the road. Soon 
they find the poor man, bound, gagged, fas- 
tened to the rails, and more dead than alive. 
In an instant he is released and saved. The 
men who tried to kill him were caught, and 
punished as they deserved. 

If you and I could have gone to that 
good woman, while she was rejoicing over 
the wonderful way in which her husband 
had been saved, and could have asked her 
what she thought about the kingdom of 
God? she might well have said — “0 it is 
a beautiful kingdom, because it ‘ruleth over 
all,’ and makes the least things, as well as 
the greatest, work for good to them that 
love him.” 

When that woman went up to the signal- 
post, it was a little thing whether she pulled 
one rope or another. But Jesus was there. 
He overruled that little thing, so as to save 
the life of that poor man. 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 97 


And Jesus can overrule little things in 
the same way to comfort his people, when they 
are in trouble, as well as to save them when 
in danger. 

Here is an illustration that I know to be 
true, for I am well acquainted with the per- 
son to whom it refers. 

Some years ago, a young lady from Wil- 
mington, Delaware, went with a sick brother 
to spend the winter in the state of Georgia. 
That brother was very dear to her. He had 
taken his father’s place when he died, and 
for years had been the support, and com- 
fort, and blessing of the family. But now 
he was attacked with consumption; and the 
doctor had ordered him to the South, in the 
hope of saving his life and of restoring him 
to health again. His sister, accompanied by 
a faithful man-servant, went with him. For 
awhile she was cheered by the hope that 
her brother would get well, and return to 
bless his household. 

But, as the winter passed away, it began 
to be doubtful whether he would ever get 


98 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


better. And, at last, the doctor told the poor 
sorrowing sister that her brother never could 
be well again. And then the painful thought 
came over her, that her brother had not many 
days to live ; that she must see him die away 
from her family ; that she must bury him there 
among strangers; and then go back alone to 
her poor afflicted mother. Her heart sank 
within her, and she felt unspeakably sad at 
the thought of having to pass through this 
bitter trial. At this time, she went one day 
into the garden, connected with the house 
where they were staying, that she might be 
by herself, and think over all her troubles. 
In a quiet corner of that garden, where no 
one could see her, she leaned against a tree, 
and wept in all the sadness of her aching 
heart. Her brother was dying. Her family 
were all far, far away. A stranger among 
strangers, it seemed to her as if there never 
was any one so sad and lonely as she was. 
Just then a little piece of paper caught her 
eye. It was the torn scrap of a newspaper, 
which the wind seemed to be tossing care- 







































































































IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 99 


lessly about, here and there. Presently an- 
other breath of wind caught it, brought it 
near her, and laid it gently down at her feet. 
Something prompted her to stoop down and 
pick it up. She did so, and on turning it 
over, found these beautiful lines printed on 
that bit of paper: 

“ Not all alone : — the whispering trees, 

The rippling brook, the starry sky, 

Have each peculiar harmonies 
To soothe, subdue, and sanctify. 

The low, sweet breath of evening’s sigh 
For thee hath oft a friendly tone ; 

To lift thy grateful thoughts on high, 

To say thou art not all alone. 

“ Not all alone : — a watchful eye 

That notes the wandering sparrow’s fall, 

A saving hand is ever nigh, 

A gracious power attends thy call. 

When sadness holds thy heart in thrall, 

His tenderest mercy oft is shown ; 

Then seek the balm vouchsafed to all, 

And thou canst never be alone." 

These sweet words were a great comfort 
to that poor, lonely child of sorrow. If an 


100 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


angel from heaven had come down and whis- 
pered the words to her she could not have 
felt more comforted. That scrap of paper, 
which some one had thrown carelessly away, 
was a very little thing. And that breath of 
wind which blew it to her, and laid it down 
at her feet, was a little thing too. But He 
whose “kingdom ruleth over all,” was pleased 
to make use of those little things to cheer the 
heart of his afflicted servant in her loneliness. 
And when we consider how Jesus can over- 
rule the smallest things as well as the great- 
est, to help his people in danger, and to com- 
fort them in trouble, we see what beauty 
there is in his kingdom. 

And then there is one other thing that shows 
the beauty of this kingdom. Jesus not only rules 
over alt the greatest things , and all the smallest 
things — but he rules them at all times, and in 

ALL PLACES. 

Solomon says, “There is a time for every 
thing under the sun.” He means by this 
that there is a particular season when each 
thing that we have to do must be attended 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 101 


to. If we neglect to attend to it then, it 
can not be done at all. For instance, sup- 
pose you have a check on a bank for fifty 
dollars. If you want to get that money you 
must be sure to go while the bank is open. 
The banks generally close at three o’clock. 
If you go there at half past three, or four 
o’clock, it will be too late. You can not get 
the money then, but will have to wait till 
the next day. Kings, and rulers, and great 
men generally, have particular days, or hours, 
when they can be seen. If you wish them 
to help you, or to do any thing for you, you 
must go to them at that particular time; or 
else you will not get the help you want. It 
is necessary for men to have particular hours 
for attending to business ; because they must 
have time for eating, and sleeping, and rest- 
ing. And they can not attend to business 
when they are eating, and sleeping, and 
resting. But it is different with Jesus. He 
never sleeps, and never rests. And the beau- 
tiful thing about his kingdom is, that he not 
only rules over all things — over all the great- 


102 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


est things, and all the smallest things — but 
he rules them at all times and in all places. 
His arm never gets weary, and never needs 
any rest. There are no particular hours of 
the day in which he attends to his business, 
as the Ruler of all things. He is attending 
to it at all times. In summer and in winter, 
by day and by night, he is always ready to 
hear, and answer, and help those who call 
upon him. He knows what we need before 
we ask; and he is always waiting and will- 
ing to help. Look at yonder sun. It is 
thousands of years since God made it, and 
hung it up in the sky. Through all those 
thousands of years the sun has been shining 
away as hard as it can. It has never stopped 
shining for a moment, day or night. And 
Jesus is just like the sun in this respect. 
The sun is all the time giving light ; and 
Jesus is all the time governing, and ruling, 
— giving grace, and help, and blessing to his 
people. Wherever we are, and wherever we 
go, he is always there beforehand, ready to 
take care of us and do us good. 


IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 103 


The Bible is full of illustrations of the way 
in which this kingdom is ruling all things, at 
all times, and in all places. It was this which 
kept Noah safe while the world was drown- 
ing. It was this which kept Lot safe while 
the storm of fire was burning up Sodom and 
Gomorrah. It was this which kept Joseph 
safe although his brethren had made up their 
minds to kill him. It was this which kept 
Moses safe in Egypt, though Pharaoh was 
very angry with him, and would have killed 
him if he could. It was this which kept 
David safe, though Saul was hunting him 
with an army of three thousand men, all up 
and down the land, and trying for years to 
destroy him. It was this which kept Daniel 
safe in the den of lions; and his three friends 
when Nebuchadnezzar threw them into the 
burning fiery furnace. And when Jonah 
was carried by the great fish down to the 
lowest depths of the ocean, it was this 
“ kingdom ruling over all,” which preserved 
him there, and brought him safe back to 
land and to his home again. 


104 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


And in just the same way this kingdom, 
as it rules over all things, is preserving peo- 
ple now. Here is an illustration. 

Some time ago, a clergyman from New 
Haven was on a visit to Boston during the 
winter. He was stopping at the Marlbor- 
ough Hotel, and was sitting in his room 
writing a lecture that he was going to de- 
liver. A very severe gale was blowing that 
day. He stopped in his writing, being at a 
loss for a word. He clasped his hands over 
his head, and tilted his chair back, while 
meditating about the word he wished to 
make use of. Just while he was doing this, 
the storm blew down a chimney, and a great 
mass of bricks, and mortar, came tearing 
through- the roof, and the ceiling, and crushed 
the table on which he had been writing. If 
he had not leaned back on his chair, at that 
very moment, he would have been killed in- 
stantly. The hole made in the roof was 
from ten to fourteen feet in width. What 
was it which led this minister to lean back, 
at that moment, and so to save his life? It 




















' 

* 





IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINGDOM. 105 

was not an accident or chance that happened 
to him. In a world where God is always 
present, everywhere, there can be no such 
thing as accident, or chance. Nothing mere- 
ly happens. Every thing is known, and or- 
dered, or allowed. Jesus, whose “kingdom 
ruleth over all,” was in the room with that 
minister. It was one of his angels who led 
him to tip back his chair, and thus to save 
his life. 

And when we think of Jesus as ruling all 
the greatest things, and all the smallest 
things, in all places, and at all times, then 
it may well be said that we are “ seeing the 
King ” in the beauty of his kingdom. 

If we have Jesus for our friend it will 
always be a help and comfort to us to think 
how 


“His kingdom ruleth over all. 




IV. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 











■ 



IV. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 

“The whole family in heaven and earth.” 

Ephesians iii. 15. 

The church of Jesus Christ is compared in 
the Bible to many different things. At one 
time it is compared to a city (Isa. xxvi. 1, 
Matt. v. 14); at another to the moon (Cant, 
vi. 10); at another to a temple (I Cor. iii. 
16); at another to an olive tree (Hosea xiv. 
6). Then it is likened to a vine (Ps. lxxx. 8, 
14) ; to a vineyard (Isa. v. 1-7) ; to a virgin 
(II Cor. xi. 2); to a wife (Rev. xxi. 9); to a 
mother (Gal. iv. 26). In one place it is com- 
pared to a bush on fire (Ex. iii. 2) ; in anoth- 
er to a garden (Cant. iv. 12, 16); in another 
to a lily (Cant. ii. 2) ; in another to a golden 
candlestick (Rev. i. 20) ; in another to a flock 
of sheep (Luke xii. 32) ; in another place it is 


110 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


compared to a house (Heb. iii. 6); and here, 
in the words of our text, it is compared to 
a family. This is one of the most interest- 
ing views of the church of Christ that we 
find in the Bible. In the family to which 
we belong we find our home. There we 
were born and brought up. There we were 
nursed and taken care of, when we were 
young and helpless. There we were taught 
when we knew nothing. There we were 
made acquainted with a mother’s tender love 
and a father’s kind and constant care. There 
we learned to know and love our brothers 
and sisters. And the brightest hours we 
have ever spent, and the sweetest joys we 
have ever known, have been the hours spent 
and the joys known in the family which 
makes our home. And so it is pleasant to 
find that our blessed Saviour speaks of his 
church as a family. 

In this course of sermons we are talking 
about the beauty of Jesus as our King. 
There are many points of view from which 
we may look at this beauty. Our present 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. Ill 


text calls us to consider the beauty of the 
Kings family . 

This is the subject now before us. The 
King here referred to is Jesus our Saviour; 
the family is his church. And the ques- 
tion we have to try and answer is this 
— what sort of a family is it, of which he is 
the Head, or King? or what are the things 
about this family which show the beauty 
of it? There are four things which show us 
the beauty of this family. 

In the first place, this family of Jesus is 
— a large family. 

This is one thing that will show its 
beauty. We think a family is pretty large 
when there are eight or ten children in 
it. When the children come to number fif- 
teen or twenty we consider it a very large 
family. But the family of Jesus will be 
a wonderfully large one. We may judge 
of the size of this family in part from 
what the Bible tells us about the home in 
which they are to live. When Jesus was 
speaking on this point he said — “in my 


112 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


Father’s house are many mansions” (John 
xiv. 2). By his Father’s house here, I sup- 
pose our Saviour meant us to understand 
heaven. And if there are to be “ many man- 
sions” there, then we may be sure there must 
be a very large family to occupy all those 
mansions. 

We may form some idea of the many man- 
sions there will be in heaven, from what we 
read in Kev. xxi. 16. There the heavenly 
home, or what our Saviour calls our “Fa- 
ther’s house,” is compared to a beautiful city. 
The form and size of this heavenly city are 
very remarkable. We are told that it was, 
as the apostle saw it coming down from 
heaven, in the form of a great square city, 
and each of the four sides of this square 
city was twelve thousand furlongs in length. 
Now we know that eight furlongs make a 
mile. And if we turn these furlongs into 
miles, which we can easily do by dividing 
twelve thousand by eight, we get fifteen hun- 
dred miles as the length of each of the four 
sides of this great city. Only think of a city 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 113 


in the form of a square, and with each of its 
sides fifteen hundred miles long! There has 
never been any thing like this in our world. 
We think that Babylon, of which we read in 
old times, was a very large city. And so it 
was. It was built in the form of a square, 
too, and we are told that each of its sides 
Avas fifteen miles long. But each side of 
this heavenly city is a hundred times longer 
than the side of Babylon was. The city of 
Boston is about three hundred miles from 
Philadelphia. If you or I should set off to 
walk from Philadelphia to Boston, and should 
walk thirty miles a day, it would take us 
just ten days to reach there. By the time 
we arrived we should be ready to think that 
a city, each of whose four sides was as long 
as the distance from Philadelphia to Boston, 
was a wondrously large city. So it would 
be. And yet, that heavenly city of which 
the Bible tells us, and which is to be the 
home of the family of Jesus forever, is of 
such a size that each of its four sides is five 
times as long as the distance between Phil- 
8 


114 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


adelphia and Boston. If that city had al- 
ready come down from heaven, as we are 
told it will do one of these days, and it 
you and I should start from the corner of 
one of its jewelled walls, and should travel 
on foot thirty miles a day, it would take us 
fifty days to walk along one of the sides of 
that wonderful city. 

And then, we are told that that city is 
to be fifteen hundred miles in height , as 
well as in length and breadth. We can 
not tell what to make of such a city as 
this. Well may the Bible say, as it does, that 
— “ eye hath not seen, nor ear heard ; neither 
hath entered into heart,” or mind, “of man, 
the things that God hath prepared for them 
that love him” (I Corinthians ii. 9). But 
this one thing we can all understand veiy 
well, that if the city which is to be the home 
of God’s family is so great in its size, then 
the family which is to occupy that vast 
home, those many mansions, must be a very 
large family. When we see what the size 
of a nest is, we can tell about how large the 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 115 


bird will be that is to occupy that nest. And 
so when we read about the great size of that 
heavenly city, which is to be the home of 
the people of Jesus Christ, we know that the 
family to be made up of those people must 
be a very large family. 

Somebody has made a curious calculation 
to try and find out how many rooms there 
would be in a city like that spoken of in the 
Revelation, and how many people could be 
accommodated there. This would be a pret- 
ty hard sum in what is called in our books 
of arithmetic the cube root. It is too hard 
for us to attempt to work out here. But we 
can look, for a moment, at the result which 
that sum brings before us. In working it 
out, we may just suppose that each mem- 
ber of Christ’s family, in that heavenly city, 
would have a room, for himself to live in, 
nineteen feet square and sixteen feet high. 
Then the working out of that sum shows 
that there would be more than five billions, 
seven hundred and forty-three thousand mil- 
lions of such rooms in that city. No one can 


116 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


form any idea of such a number as this. 
Why if our world were to last for a hun- 
dred thousand years, and were to have a 
population of nine hundred millions all the 
time, and if that population were to die off 
and be renewed every thirty-three years, and 
if all those people were to be saved, — yet, at 
the end of a hundred thousand years, there 
would not be half enough people to occupy 
all the rooms in that great city. 

But then this is not what the Bible teaches 
us about heaven. It will not be like a great 
boarding-house, in which each person will 
have a room to himself. On the contrary, 
we are taught to think of it as a beautiful 
garden, where we are told that Jesus, “the 
Lamb in the midst of the throne, will feed 
his people and lead them unto living foun- 
tains of water” (Rev. vii. 17). But the size 
of the heavenly city shows us what a large 
family our Saviour will have there. 

And then the way in which the apostle 
speaks of this family, in our text, shows us 
that it must be a large family. He calls it 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 117 


— “the whole family in heaven and in earth” 
The angels are a part of this family in 
heaven. We know not how many angels 
there are. They are spoken of as — “an in- 
numerable company of angels” (Heb. xii. 22). 
We know that there are thousands on thou- 
sands of them. How beautiful that family 
must be which takes in all those holy an- 
gels ! Then all the dear children who have 
died, and all the good men and women who 
have died, and gone to heaven, belong to 
this family. This is what the hymn means 
when it says, 

“Angels and living saints and dead 
But one communion” — or family — “make.” 

And when we think of all the angels, and 
all the good people who have died, from the 
beginning of the world, and all who are 
loving Jesus in the world now, and all who 
shall love him from now to the end of the 
world, and all the children who have died 
in all ages, then we see what a very large 
family this must be! The members of this 
family will be gathered out of all countries ; 


118 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


they will be of all colors and classes of peo- 
ple, but they will all be made “ one in Jesus 
Christ.” 

Here is an illustration to show how the 
members of this family are made alike, 
though they may come from the opposite 
ends of the earth. 

In Whitechapel, London, is a large free day 
school, connected with one of the churches 
in that neighborhood. About eight hundred 
children attend there every day. These chil- 
dren are very poor. Many of them have no 
shoes on their feet, and only ragged clothes 
to wear. But they are interested in the mis- 
sionary cause, and do something to help it. 
These poor children subscribe eighty pounds, 
or four hundred dollars a year, towards a mis- 
sion school in New Zealand. They are not 
allowed to give more than a farthing at a 
time. In this way they support five children 
in that New Zealand mission school. Those 
children are clothed, and boarded, and edu- 
cated by the poor children of the White- 
chapel school. These little New Zealanders 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 110 


wear a band over their shoulders, which 
hangs down in front of them. On the ends 
of this band are two hearts, worked by the 
Whitechapel children. In the centre of one 
heart is marked the word — “ Whitechapel ” ; 
and in the centre of the other the word — 
“New Zealand.” Across from one heart to 
the other is a small gold cord, and under it 
the words — “ Both one in Christy 

And so the love that Christians have for 
their Saviour will make them all one in him, 
no matter where they come from. And when 
we think what a multitude there will be in 
this family, and every one of them looking 
as glorious as Jesus looked, when he was on 
the mount of Transfiguration, then we see 
that one thing which has to do with the 
beauty of this family is that it will be a 
large family. 

In the next place it will he — a wealthy family, 
and this will have a good deal to do with 
its beauty. 

In this world it does not always happen 
so. Great wealth instead of making people 


120 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


more interesting, or beautiful, often makes 
them proud, and selfish, and very disagreea- 
ble. But it is not so with the family of Je- 
sus. And yet this is the richest family that 
ever was known. No one can tell how much 
the members of this family are worth. Gen- 
erally where a family is considered rich, it is 
easy enough to tell how much property they 
own. There are so many houses belonging 
to them. These are worth so much. They 
own so much more in different kind of 
stocks ; and then they have so much money 
in the bank. You can add all these togeth- 
er, and tell how much it amounts to. But if 
we belong to this heavenly family, then God 
is our Father. He is very rich. Can any 
body tell how much our Father in heaven 
is worth? We often forget that God is our 
Father; and how very rich he is. 

THE ORPHAN’S FATHER. 

Some time ago, a minister was visiting an 
orphan asylum. The children were seated in 
a school-room, and he stood on a platform. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 121 


“So this is an orphan asylum,” said the 
minister. “Now, if I should ask if you 
have a father, many of you would say — 
No. Would you not?” 

Tt Yes, sir,” said several voices. 

“How many of you say you have no fa- 
ther? Those who say this, please hold up 
your hands.” 

A great lot of little hands went up. 

“ So all of you say you have no father ? ” 

“Yes, sir ; yes, sir.” 

“Now,” said the minister, “do you ever 
say the Lord’s prayer? Let me hear you.” 

The children began: — “Our Father who 
art in heaven — ” 

“Stop, children,” said the minister, “did 
you begin right ? ” 

They began again — “Our Father who art 
in heaven — ” 

“ Stop again, children,” he said. “ I hear 
you all say — L Our Father, who art in heaven.’ 
Then you all have a Father in heaven. Let 
me speak to you a little about him. He 
is a good Father, — the best Father in the 


122 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


world. Yes, and he is a very rich Father 
too. He owns all the gold in California. He 
owns all the world. He can give you as 
much of any thing as he sees is best for 
you. Now, children, never forget what a 
wealthy family you belong to, and what a 
rich Father you have. Go to him for all you 
want, just as if you could see him. He is able 
and willing to do all that is for your good.” 

THE HEAVENLY RICHES. 

A Christian lady in England had been 
very well off; but by some means or other 
she had lost all her property. She was left 
so poor that at last she was obliged to go 
into the alms-house. She was old, and near 
her end. One day, while a friend was by 
her side talking to her, he saw her smile 
and look very happy. He asked her what 
she was thinking about that seemed to give 
her so much comfort. “Oh,” she said, “I was 
just thinking what a blessed change it will 
be, when I go from the poor-house to heaven. 
My earthly riches are all gone, but my heav- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 123 


enly riches are all safe. They are the gifts 
of God in Jesus Christ, and nobody can take 
them away from me. They will last me for 
all eternity.” 

This good old Christian lady was made 
glad and happy by thinking what a wealthy 
family she belonged to. And this is the way 
we ought all to feel, if we are loving and 
serving Jesus. All things in heaven and in 
earth belong to Jesus. And all that he has 
he will share with his people. This is what 
it means when we are told in one place that 
we are — “ joint heirs with Christ ” (Romans 
viii. 17); and in another, that “ all things 
are yours ” (I Cor. iii. 21); and in another 
— “ they shall inherit all things ” (Rev. xxi. 7). 

Here is a story that is told of the apostle 
Thomas, one of the twelve apostles sent out 
by our Saviour. I can not tell you surely 
that it is a true story; but it comes in very 
well to show us how we may lay up treas- 
ures in heaven, and secure for ourselves a 
large share of the riches of that wealthy 
family, to which we belong, if we love Jesus. 


124 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


The story says that when the apostle Thom- 
as was preaching in Palestine, our Saviour 
appeared to him and said; “Leave this coun- 
try and go to India. Gondoforus the king 
of the Indies wishes to build a palace finer 
than that of the emperor of Rome. Behold 
now, I send thee to teach him how to build 
such a palace.” 

The apostle went. King Gondoforus gave 
him a very large amount of gold and silver, 
and commanded him to build for him a mag- 
nificent palace. Then the king went into a 
distant country, and was absent two years. 
The apostle meanwhile, instead of building 
a palace, gave away all the money, entrusted 
to him, among the poor and the sick. When 
the king returned and found how his money 
had been used he was very angry. He com- 
manded the apostle to be seized and cast into 
prison, intending to put him to death in a 
very painful way. Just then, the story says 
that the king’s brother died. 1 When they 
were about to bury him he came to life 
again. He said to the king — “ That man 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 125 


whom you are about to put to death is the 
servant of God. Behold I have been in Par- 
adise. There the angels showed me a pal- 
ace of wondrous beauty. It was built out of 
the gold and silver which that apostle gave 
away, in your name, among the sick and suf- 
fering. Now listen to the teaching of that 
good man. Love and serve that Saviour of 
whom he tells, and then that glorious palace 
will be yours. This is the message I am sent 
back to bring to you.” 

Then the king released Thomas out of 
prison. He listened to his teaching, and 
was baptized by him, and became a Chris- 
tian. 

Whether this story is true or not it teaches 
us a good lesson. It shows us that the best 
way of laying treasure up in heaven, is by 
laying it out on earth, in doing good with 
it. And when we think how rich our glo- 
rious Saviour is, and how rich he makes all 
his people who love and serve him, we see 
what beauty there is in his family, because 
it is a wealthy family. 


126 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


In the third place this heavenly family is — an 
honorable family — and this is another thing 
that shows its beauty. 

There are certain things that are consid- 
ered as honorable in any family. If people 
can trace their family back a long way, show- 
ing it to be an ancient family, that is thought 
to be an honor. If we could trace our fam- 
ily back to that little band of heroic men, 
the “Pilgrim Fathers,” who came over in 
“the Mayflower,” and landed on “Plymouth 
Rock,” we should think that an honor. But 
if we belong to this heavenly family, let 
us never forget, that it is the oldest family 
ever known. Jesus, the head of this family, 
is called “ the Ancient of Days." “ His going 
forth has been from of old; from everlasting.” 
There is no honor like that of being con- 
nected with him. 

THE HIGHEST HONOR. 

Sir Ralph Abercrombie was one of the 
bravest soldiers that Scotland ever had. He 
was also an humble, earnest Christian. On 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 127 


one occasion, he was elected as an elder in 
the Presbyterian Church, to which he be- 
longed. One of the duties of an elder in 
that church, is to help the minister in dis- 
tributing the bread and wine, when they cel- 
ebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. 

At the close of the solemn service, in which 
this brave Christian soldier had been thus 
engaged, for the first time, he asked the 
privilege of saying a few words, and then 
turning to the minister, before all the people, 
he said, 

“Sir, — I have been honored by my king 
with many important and honorable com- 
mands, during my life as a soldier; and his 
majesty has been pleased to reward my ser- 
vices with many most valuable gifts, as to- 
kens of his royal favor; but this service, in 
which I have now been engaged, and have 
been the humble instrument of putting the 
emblems of my Saviour’s dying love into the 
hands, even if it were of some of the least 
of his followers, — this I regard as the high- 
est honor I can receive this side of heaven.” 


128 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


Here we see how highly that brave soldier 
thought of the honor of being connected with 
this heavenly family ! 

If we could show that famous princes had 
belonged to our family, in past years, we 
should feel that this would help to make our 
family honorable. But all the members of 
this heavenly family are called God’s princes 
(Ps. cxiii. 7, 8). And by and by they will 
all be kings and priests in his glorious pres- 
ence (I Pet. ii. 9, Rev. i. 6). 

THE HEAVENLY CROWN. 

The eldest son of a noble family in Scot- 
land lay on his death-bed. If he had lived 
he would have succeeded to the dukedom, 
which belonged to his family. But he was 
a Christian, and he felt that it was a greater 
honor to belong to the family of Jesus in 
heaven, than to be a member of the noblest 
family in this world. He showed this by 
what he said to his oldest brother when he 
came to take leave of him. After he had 
said to him all he had to say about the busi- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 129 


ness of the family, and about his funeral, he 
ended in these words: 

“And now, Douglass, good-by. In a little 
while you will be a duke, but I shall be a 
king” 

What an honor to belong to a family of 
which all the members will be kings! 

If we could show that men famous, not 
merely for the offices they held but for the 
noble characters they possessed, had belonged 
to our family, — men like George Washington 
of our own country, or John Howard or Wil- 
liam Wilberforce of England, — we should feel 
that it was a great honor to belong to such 
a family. But in Jesus, the Head of this 
family, we have the veiy noblest character 
that ever was known, either in heaven or on 
earth; either in this world or in any other. 
And all the members of his family will be 
made like him, in some degree. 

Here is an incident which illustrates the 
noble character of a true Christian. 

Some years ago, Major Baird, a young offi- 
cer of the British army in India, with sev- 
9 


130 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


eral of his brother officers, had been taken 
captive by their enemy, Tippoo Saib. They 
were thrown into a dungeon. There they 
had great sufferings to bear. These suffer- 
ings were greatly increased by the fact that 
some of them were severely wounded. One 
day they were disturbed by hearing the sound 
of the clanking of iron outside their prison. 
Presently the massive door of the prison was 
thrown open, and a party of natives came 
in, bearing on their shoulders sets of heavy 
chains. These were flung down on the floor 
of the dungeon. Then came one of the offi- 
cers of that cruel tyrant, Tippoo Saib, and 
gave command that a set of those chains 
should be fastened on the limbs of each of 
the captives. 

Then they began to fasten the chains on 
the prisoners. Presently they came to Major 
Baird. He had been badly wounded. His 
wounds were still open. One of these was 
on his leg, just where the iron chain would 
come. The men are about to put the chain 
on. A gray-haired English officer steps for- 






THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 131 


ward. He is scarred with many an old 
wound, but still his heart is tender as an 
infant’s. Pointing to the major he says ; 
“ Men, for mercy’s sake don’t do that. You 
see the wound on his leg. If you put that 
chain on, it will certainly kill him.” 

“Kill him or not,” says the unfeeling offi- 
cer, “ I can’t help it. Here is a set of chains 
for each prisoner. My order is to see them 
all put on; and on they must be put.” 

“Then,” says this noble-hearted Christian 
soldier, “put the major’s chains on me, and 
let me wear two." 

Major Baird objected ; but his friend in- 
sisted, and carried his point. The other set 
of chains was fastened on him. He wore two. 
Major B. lived to be released from the dun- 
geon, and gain the victory over his cruel en- 
emy, Tippoo Saib. His noble-hearted friend 
died in the dungeon. His name is not known 
to us; but it is known in heaven, and will 
be remembered and rewarded there as it de- 
serves to be. “ Let me wear two!" How 
truly Christian this was ! That was the very 


132 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


spirit of Jesus, who “ was made a curse for 
us,” and suffered “the just for the unjust that 
he might bring us to God.” This is the way 
in which all the followers of Jesus should act. 

r 

And if all the members of his family try to 
act in this way — then that heavenly family 
must be an honorable family. This shows the 
beauty of that family. 

There is only one other thing about this 
family to speak of now as showing its beau- 
ty, and that is, it is — a happy family . 

It is very easy to tell some of the things 
that will be sure to make a family happy. 
Suppose, for instance, we see a family all 
the members of which really love one an- 
other. Suppose they show that love by try- 
ing to do all sorts of kind and pleasant 
things to each other; suppose moreover that 
they know they are safe; and are sure of be- 
ing able to get all that they need to eat, and 
to drink, and to wear, and to make them 
comfortable. Well, I think we should ex- 
pect to find that family, a happy family. 

Now, if we are true Christians, this is just 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 133 


our condition. We love Jfesus, and he com- 
mands us to love one another. We must 
show this love by trying to be gentle, and 
kind, and pleasant to all about us. We have 
nothing to be afraid of.. Our sins are all 
pardoned. God is our Father and Friend. 
He will take care of us. He promises to 
give us whatever is best for us, while we 
live in this world; and when we die, he will 
take us to be with him, in that blessed home 
that he is preparing for us. And if we know 
and believe all this, then we ought to be hap- 
py, not only when we are in health and pros- 
perity, but when we are sick and in trouble ; 
not only when we are living, but when we 
are dying. 

Let us look at some examples of persons 
who were made happy by being members 
of this family, when nothing else could have 
made them happy. 

REJOICING IN AFFLICTION. 

A colporteur in one of our southern cities, 
gives this account of a humble, and afflicted, 


134 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


but happy Christian. “ He was an old white- 
headed negro, known as Uncle Jack. Going 
in to see him one day, I said — 

“‘Well, Uncle Jack, how are you?’ 

“ ‘ I’s very painful in my knee; but tank 
my hebenly Master, I’ve cause to be tankful. 
My Master jus’ gib me ’nuf to make me 
humble.’ 

“ ‘ And does your religion make you as 
happy now, Uncle Jack, as it did when 
you were well, and could go to church, and 
the meetings ! ’ 

“ ‘ Yes, massa, I’s happier now, and Joys 
’ligion more. Den I trust to de people, to 
de meetin’, to de sarment; and when I hears 
de hymn sing, and de pray, I feels glad. 
But all dis ain’t like de good Lord in de 
heart. God’s lub yer,’ — striking his breast — 
‘ make all de hard heart go ’way, and make 
Jack sit down, and wonder what de good 
Master gwine to do wid dis yer poor ole 
sinner.’ 

“ ‘ Then you love God even if he does let 
you be sick, and in pain?’ 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 135 


“ ‘ Oh, yes ! God — him do all dis for me 
good. God wise. Jack don’t know. In de 
night me hear noise. No know what him 
is; me feel ’fraid. Bime by,, morning come. 
Plenty light den. Me hear noise — not ’fraid 
den. Me see, me know, me got plenty sense 
den. Dis life — dark — all same as night. Me 
no know. But up dare, wid God — all light 
— me see all — know all den. Glory — halle- 
lujah!”’ 

Now, certainly that was a happy family, 
that Uncle Jack belonged to. 

THE HAPPY LITTLE GIRL. 

“The happiest child I ever saw,” says an 
English clergyman, “ was a little girl I once 
met when traveling in a railway carriage. 
We were both going up to London, and we 
traveled a good many miles together. She 
was only eight years old, and was quite 
blind ; had never been able to see at all. 
She had never once beheld the bright sun, 
the twinkling stars, the beautiful sky, the 
grass, the flowers, the trees, the birds, or 


136 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


any of those pleasant things which we see 
every day of our lives ; but still she was quite 
happy. 

“She was all by herself, poor little thing. 
There was neither father nor mother, relation 
nor friend, to be with her and take care of 
her on the journey, and yet she was con- 
tented and happy. 

“ 4 Tell me,’ she said, on getting into the 
carriage, ‘how many people are in this car- 
riage, for I am blind, and can’t see any 
thing.’ A gentleman asked her ‘if she was 
not afraid ? ’ ‘No,’ she said, ‘ I am not 

afraid. I have traveled before. I trust in 
God, and know that he will take care of 
me.’ 

“But I soon found out why she was so 
happy. It was because she loved Jesus. I 
began to talk with her about the Bible, and 
I was surprised to find how much she knew 
about it. She talked to me about sin; how 
it first came into the world, when Adam and 
Eve ate the forbidden fruit; but how it was 
to be seen everywhere now! 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 137 


•‘Then she talked about Jesus. She told 
me of the agony in the garden of Gethsem- 
ane; of his sweating great drops of blood; 
of the soldiers nailing him to the cross; of 
the spear piercing his side, and the blood 
and water coming out. ‘Oh/ she said, ‘how 
very good it was of him to die for us; and 
such a cruel death ! ’ 

“I asked her what part of the Bible she 
liked best. She said she liked all the history 
of Jesus; but the chapters she most loved to 
hear were the last two chapters of the book 
of the Bevelations. I had a pocket Bible 
with me, so I took it out, and read those 
chapters to her as we went along. 

“ When I had done she began to talk about 
heaven. ‘Only think,’ she said, ‘how nice 
it will be to be there! There , will be no 
more sorrow, nor crying, nor tears. And 
then the Lord Jesus will be there; for it 
says, “The Lamb is the light thereof”; and 
we shall always be with him. There will 
be no night there. But best of all, there 
will be no blind people in heaven. I shall 


138 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


see Jesus there, and all the beautiful things 
in heaven; won’t that be glorious?’” 

Now think of this poor little blind girl. 
Think of her taking such pleasure in talking 
about Jesus. Think of the joy she felt in 
hearing the account of heaven, where there 
is no more sorrow, or night. If belonging 
to Jesus could make a poor, blind child like 
this so happy, then the family made up of 
those who know and love him must be a 
happy family. 

And the members of this family are happy 
when they are dying, as well as while they 
are living. “I hope,” said a faithful chap- 
lain to a wounded soldier, who lay upon his 
cot, in the hospital, with the death drops 
already gathering on his brow, “ I hope you 
feel happy in thinking of Jesus.” “0, sir,” 
he replied, “what should I do, if I had not 
Jesus to trust in now ? ” 

The chaplain spoke to another dying sol- 
dier. His reply was — “Wrap my blanket 
around me, and leave me alone with Jesus.” 

He spoke to a third and asked him if he 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S FAMILY. 139 


was ready to go. “ Oh, yes,” said he, “ my 
Saviour in whom I have long trusted is with 
me now, and his smile lights up the dark 
valley for me.” 

And now, let us pass from the hospital, 
where the soldiers are dying on their humble 
cots, to the royal palace of England. There 
Albert the good, the late husband of Queen 
Victoria, is stretched upon his dying couch. 
The queen sits by overwhelmed with grief. 
The lips of the dying man are moving. Lis- 
ten to what he says. These are his last 
words; “I have had wealth, and rank, and 
power, and I thank God for them; but if 
these were all, I should now be poor indeed ! ” 
And then as his spirit was passing peaceful- 
ly away to its everlasting rest, he whispered 
these sweet words, 

“Kock of ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in thee!” 

Yes, that must be a happy family the 
members of which can find such comfort 
and joy in the solemn hour of death. And 
when we think how large this family is, how 


140 THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 

wealthy , how honorable, and how happy, we 
may understand something about the beauty 
of the Kings family. 

The words of the Collect, in the Prayer 
Book, for Christmas Bay, are suitable words 
with which to close this sermon: — “0, Al- 
mighty God who hast given thine only be- 
gotten Son to take our nature upon him, and 
to be born of a pure virgin; grant that we, 
being regenerate and made thy children by 
adoption and grace, may daily be renewed 
by thy Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen.” 


Y. 

THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 


THE RAISING- OF LAZARUS. 









Y. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. 

“ He cried with a loud voice , Lazarus come forth” 
John xi. 43. 

If we are walking through a flower garden, 
it is a pleasant thing to stop and pluck one 
of the most beautiful of the flowers, and carry 
it away with us, as a specimen of what is 
growing there. 

When our blessed Saviour was on earth 
he “went about doing good.” This made 
his life like a garden. The good things 
that he was doing all the time, are the 
flowers that grew in this garden. When 
we read about the life of Jesus in the New 
Testament, we are walking through this gar- 
den. And when we take up one of the won- 
derful works of Jesus, to examine and study 


144 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


it, we are plucking one of the flowers from 
this garden. The raising of Lazarus from 
the grave, after he had been buried four 
days, was one of the most wonderful things 
that Jesus ever did. Let us take this now, 
as a specimen of the beautiful flowers that 
grew in the garden of our Saviour’s life. 
And when we come to study it, we shall 
find illustrations in it, of the beauty which 
marked the way, in which Jesus did his 
work. It will be like examining a flower, 
and tracing out its beauty, in the form, or 
shape, in which it grows; the colors which 
it puts on, and the sweet fragrance which 
it gives forth. And in considering the rais- 
ing of Lazarus there are three things, in the 
way in which he did it, that illustrate the 
beauty of the King’s work. It may help us 
in remembering these things, if we bear in 
mind that each of them begins with the 
letter P. 

In the raising of Lazarus we see the — pity — of 
Jesus in his work. And this is one thing that 
shows the beauty of that work. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 145 


We read that when he saw the sorrow, 
which the death of Lazarus had wrought 
upon his sisters, Mary and Martha, “ he 
groaned in spirit, and was troubled.” Now 
it must be so that the more we love a per- 
son, the more sorrow we shall feel when we 
see them in trouble. We are told expressly 
that Jesus did love this family at Bethany, 
consisting of Lazarus, and his sisters, Mary 
and Martha. And when he saw Mary weep- 
ing, on account of her dead brother; and the 
Jews also weeping that were with her; his 
pity was stirred still more deeply; and we 
read these two short, but very touching 
words — “ Jesus wept” These are wonderful 
words. They show us how full of pity, and 
tenderness, the heart of Jesus is. It was so 
then, when he was on earth; and it is so 
now; for he never changes. And when we 
are in trouble, or sorrow, we may be very 
sure that Jesus pities us, and feels for us. 

And this raising of Lazarus, was not the 
only event in our Saviour’s history which 
showed his pity. His life was full of it. W e 
10 


146 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


see it in all his works. When the blind men 
came to him, and asked his help; he pitied 

them, and opened their eyes. When the 
lame men came to him he pitied them, and 
gave them power to walk. When the deaf 
and the dumb came to him he pitied them, 
and unstopped the ears of the deaf, and loosed 
the tongue of the dumb. When men with 
withered, palsied limbs came to him, he pitied 
them ; and showed his pity by telling them to 
rise and walk, or to stretch forth their useless 
limbs, and then giving them strength to do so. 
When Jesus was going by the city of Nain 
one day, he met a funeral procession. It was 
the only son, of a poor lonely widow woman, 
whom they were carrying to the grave. The 
tender heart of Jesus was filled with pity, 
when he saw the distress of that bereaved, 
and heart-broken mother. With what lov- 
ing tones he said to her, “Weep not!” And 

then, how quickly he spoke the dead young 
man back to life; and restored him to the 
arms of his wondering, but glad and grate- 
ful mother ! 


THE BEAUTY OE THE KING’S WORK. 147 


And, even though the Jews refused to re- 
ceive him as their Messiah, and treated him 
shamefully, still, when he thought of the mis- 
eries which they were thus bringing upon 
themselves, he pitied them. And one day, 
when he was walking over the Mount of 
Olives, which looks directly down upon Je- 
rusalem, we are told that he “beheld the 
city, and wept over it; saying, O, Jerusa- 
lem ! Jerusalem ! how often would I have 
gathered thy children together, even as a 
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
and ye would not ! ” 

And when he hung upon the cross, in all 
the agony and pain he was then suffering, he 
pitied the poor blinded Jews, who were put- 
ting him to death. And he breathed forth 
the pity of his soul in that wonderful prayer 
— “Father forgive them; for they know not 
what they do.” 

It is very important for us to know that Je- 
sus has a heart full of tender pity and love. 

This is what draws us to Jesus that he 
may be our Saviour. 


148 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“FOR ME.” 

Little Carrie was a heathen child, about 
ten years old. She had bright black eyes, 
curly brown hair, and a neat slender form. 
After she had been going to the mission 
school for some time, her teacher noticed 
one day that she looked sad. 

“Carrie, my dear,” said the teacher, “why 
do you look so sad to-day?” 

“Because I am thinking.” 

“What are you thinking about?” 

“0, teacher! I don’t know whether Jesus 
loves me, or not.” 

“Carrie, did Jesus ever invite little chil- 
dren to come to him?” 

Immediately the little girl repeated this 
sweet verse she had learned in the school, 
“Buffer the little children to come unto me.” 

“Well, Carrie, for whom did Jesus speak 
those words?” In a moment she clapped 
her hands, and said, “It’s not for you, teach- 
er, is it ? No ; it’s for me ! it’s for me ! ” 
Here, we see, how the knowledge of the pity- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 149 


ing love of Jesus, was just the thing that 
drew that dear child to him, for the salva- 
tion of her soul. And multitudes have been 
drawn to him, in the same way, wherever 
the Gospel has been preached or taught. 

And we need to know the tender pity and 
love of Jesus, not only that we may trust in 
him as our Saviour, but also that we may 
be encouraged to go to him for help and 
comfort in all our troubles. 

TELL JESUS. 

Here is an illustration from a good Chris- 
tian woman, in humble circumstances, who 
was trying to make herself useful. 

“On one occasion,” she says, “I had been 
sick a long time. I was unable to work and 
my little stock of provisions was exhausted. 
I had no bread for myself or my children, 
and no means of getting any. What was I 
to do? Somewhere my eye rested on the 
words — ‘Go and tell Jesus.’ I said to my- 
self — ‘ Remember how full of pity he was for 
the poor and suffering when he was on earth. 


150 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


He is the same in his tenderness now. Go 
and tell Jesus.’ 

“ I went to my room, kneeled down, and 
told him all about my trouble, and asked 
him to help me, in any way that he thought 
best. 

“ I rose from my knees feeling peaceful 
and happy, and sure that help would come 
in some way or other. And then I waited 
to see what God would do for me. 

“ That very afternoon a man who had 
never been known to give any thing to the 
poor, drove up to my door and left a sack of 
flour. And so I knew that Jesus had heard 
my prayer, and in pity for my distress had 
sent me what was needed for the wants of 
my family.” 

And then we should remember the tender- 
ness and pity of Jesus, not only to encour- 
age us to come to him ourselves for help 
and comfort, but also that we may try and 
be like him in this respect, when we are 
working for him and seeking to do good to 
others. It is not so much ivhat we say or 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 151 


do, as the way in which we say or do it, that 
does people good. 

THE POWER OF KIND WORDS. 

Some time ago a gentleman in England, 
who was a Christian, and wished to make 
himself useful, was in the habit of spending 
a part of his Sundays in visiting the patients 
in a hospital near where he lived. He was 
a man who had learned of Jesus to be kind, 
and gentle, and loving, in what he said and 
what he did. 

As he went into the hospital, one Sunday, 
he took his seat by the bedside of a very 
rough looking poor man, who had only been 
brought in the day before. In talking to 
this man he did not begin at once by telling 
him that he was a sinner, and in danger of 
being lost forever. But, in a kind and tender 
way, he asked the man some questions about 
himself; what the sickness was that brought 
him there ; what medicine he was taking, and 
how long he expected to be in the hospital 
Thus he was trying to get acquainted with 


152 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


the man, and secure his confidence, and then 
he intended to lead on the conversation to 
something connected with the Bible, and 
with Jesus the Friend and Helper of the 
sick and suffering. But before he had time 
to get this far he saw that the poor man’s 
feelings were a good deal affected by some- 
thing or other. His face began to work. 
His muscles twitched, and quivered. At last 
he lifted up the sheet, and drawing it over 
his head, he burst into a flood of tears, and 
sobbed aloud. 

The gentleman sat quietly by, and waited 
patiently till the man got over this feeling. 
After awhile the poor fellow removed the 
clothes from over his head. His face was 
still wet with the tears which had flowed 
down it. Presently the gentleman said: “I 
am very sorry, my friend, if I have said any 
thing that hurt your feelings. I assure you 
I had no intention of doing so. Pray tell me 
what it was that disturbed you.” 

As well as the poor man could utter them, 
he sobbed out these words: — 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 153 


“Sir, you — are — the first man — that — ever 
— spoke a kind word — to me — since — I was 
born — and — I can’t stand it.” 

This gentleman had won his way to that 
man’s heart by his tenderness, and then he 
could do any thing with him that he might 
wish to do. 

Now in the raising of Lazarus we see the 
pity of Jesus. And this is one thing which 
shows the beauty of his work. 

But in the raising of Lazarus we are told of 
the prayer which Jesus offered. And this is 
the second thing that shows the beauty of 
his work. 

We read in this chapter how Jesus came 
with those weeping sisters and their sorrow- 
ing friends to the grave in which Lazarus 
lay dead. It was a cave, and a great stone 
was over the mouth of it. Jesus told them 
to take away the stone from the mouth of 
the grave. This was done. There is the 
great dark cave in which lies the lifeless 
body of Lazarus. And now Jesus pauses. 
Before speaking to the dead man in the 


154 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


grave, he lifts up his eyes to heaven, and 
speaks to his Father there. We call this a 
prayer that Jesus offered. You will find it 
in the 41st and 42d verses of this 11th chap- 
ter. But it is a very remarkable prayer. 
It is rather a thanksgiving than a prayer. 
In our prayers we always ask God to do 
something for us, or give something to us. 
But we find nothing of this kind here. Je- 
sus does not ask the Father in heaven to 
raise Lazarus from the dead, nor to help 
him to do it. He just thanks God for always 
hearing him. He speaks to him just as you 
or I would speak to a. dear friend, who was 
always with us; to whom we told all our 
secrets; and with whom we shared all our 
thoughts, and plans, and pleasures. Jesus 
seems to have offered this prayer, or thanks- 
giving, or whatever we call it, on purpose 
to show to his disciples, and to the Jews, 
and to all his people, how entirely united he 
and his Father in heaven were. They al- 
ways thought, and felt, and acted as much 
alike as if they were one person. They are 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 155 


two persons indeed, and yet they are but 
one God. Jesus was able to do any thing 
that he wanted to do. And yet, when he 
was going to do any thing important, he 
always prayed to his Father in heaven. Be- 
fore he ordained his twelve apostles, and sent 
them out to preach the Gospel, he spent the 
whole night in prayer. And before he went 
to meet the great sufferings that were await- 
ing him in Gethsemane, and on Calvary, he 
offered that beautiful prayer, more for his 
people than for himself, that we find writ- 
ten in the 17th chapter of St. John. Jesus 
prayed, in connection with the work he did, 
not so much for his own sake, as to teach us, 
by his example, how to do the work we have 
to do, and to bear the trials that God puts 
upon us. When we have hard work to do, 
and heavy burdens to bear, there is nothing 
like prayer to make that work easy, and those 
burdens light. 

Let us look at some illustrations of the 
way in which great good has been done by 
prayer. 


156 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


LIFE SAVED BY PRAYER. 

There is a good man in the city of Phil- 
adelphia who is a bishop in the Methodist 
Church, a man well known and greatly be- 
loved. I refer to Bishop Simpson. Some 
years ago a conference of the Methodist 
Church was held in Indiana. It was pre- 
sided over by Bishop Janes. During the 
meeting of that conference, Bishop Janes 
received a telegram telling him that Bishop 
Simpson was very ill and not expected to 
live. He read this telegram to the confer- 
ence, and then proposed that they should 
pause in their business and unite together 
in prayer to God, that it might please him 
to spare the life of Bishop Simpson. They 
did so. Very earnest prayers were offered, 
with many tears, that this valuable life 
might be spared. 

When they rose from their knees one of 
the ministers present said to another: 

“Bishop Simpson will not die.” 

“Why do you think so?” 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 157 


“ Because I had this feeling very strongly 
impressed on my mind while we were pray- 
ing for him.” 

Bishop Simpson did not die. The minis- 
ter just referred to wrote down in his note- 
book the day and hour when that meeting for 
prayer was held. The first time he met Bish- 
op Simpson, he said to him, “Bishop, how 
did you recover from that last sickness?” 

“ I can’t tell.” 

“What did the doctor say?” 

“He said, it seemed like a miracle.” 

“ Can you tell me the day and hour, Bishop, 
when the change took place?” 

He mentioned the time. It corresponded 
exactly to the time, when the conference 
were praying for his recovery. “As the doc- 
tor then left my room,” said the bishop, “he 
told my wife that nothing more could be 
done for me. I must die.” 

“In about an hour he returned; feeling 
my pulse he started back and asked — what 
have you been doing?” 

“ Nothing,” was the reply. 


158 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“ Why, he is getting better,” said the doc* 
tor. “ A change has taken place in the dis- 
ease within the last hour such as I never 
knew before. The danger is over. The bish- 
op will get well.” And so he did. He was 
saved by the prayers of his friends, a thou- 
sand miles away. And if prayer has such 
power as this, it was a beautiful thing in 
the work of Jesus that when raising Laz- 
arus from the grave he prayed himself, so 
as to encourage us to pray. 

Here is another example. We may call it — 

GETTING OUT OF TROUBLE BY PRAYER. 

A German minister, who lived in the Black 
Forest, had a good Christian wife who was 
remarkable for her strong faith in God. She 
believed in the power of prayer, and two 
striking anecdotes are mentioned in her life 
of the way in which she got out of trouble 
by prayer. 

She and her husband had six children, 
whom they were trying to educate; but, as 
they had very little money, they found it 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 159 


hard, at times, to meet their expenses. Con- 
nected with the parsonage in which they 
lived, were some acres of land which they 
carefully cultivated. They depended on the 
sale of the crops from this land, to help them 
in educating their children. 

One summer, just before the harvest time, 
heavy clouds were seen gathering in the sky, 
and rolling over the valley in which they 
lived. Presently a violent hail-storm burst 
forth at a distance, and began to sweep up 
the valley. On it went, destroying the crops 
wherever it came. The pastor’s wife went 
to her room and engaged in earnest prayer. 
She told God how much they were depend- 
ent on the harvest for the support of their 
children, and entreated him to save their 
crops from being destroyed. Then she wait- 
ed calmly to see what would come of her 
prayers. 

When the storm was over they went out to 
see what the effect of it had been. Wher- 
ever the storm had reached, the crops were 
entirely destroyed. But the pastor’s crops 


160 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


were uninjured. The prayers of his wife had 
been heard and answered. Just as the storm 
reached the parsonage land, an unseen hand 
had stopped its progress, and turned it aside 
in another direction. Somebody has said that 
“prayer moves the arm, that rules the world.” 
This is very true. We see it illustrated in 
this case. 

But here is another illustration of the 
power of prayer in the life of this same 
good, Christian woman. 

One day her husband received three letters. 
Each of these letters contained a bill for the 
education of one of their three boys, who 
were at school at a neighboring town. The 
letters said the bills must be paid promptly, 
or else the boys would be sent home. They 
had no money with which to pay these bills. 
The husband was in great distress. He had 
not as much faith in God as his wife had. 
He said they would be ruined. She said, 
“ Let us have faith in God, and pray to him 
for help.” 

“Faith and prayer are very well in their 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 161 


place,” said he, “ but they will not do to pay 
bills with.” 

At the close of the day his wife took the 
bills, and went up to a little private room of 
her own, and locked herself in. Then she 
kneeled down and spread out those bills 
before God. She told him of their trouble. 
She spent a good part of the night there in 
earnest prayer, that God would in some way 
send them the money they so much needed. 

When she had done praying, §he went 
down-stairs, feeling perfectly comfortable in 
her mind, and quite sure they would be 
helped. 

While they were at breakfast the next 
morning, a message came that a Christian 
friend of theirs in the village, and who was 
very rich, wished to see the pastor’s wife. 
She went to see him. He met her warmly 
and said, “I’m very glad you have come.” 
Then he led her into the parlor, and said, “ I 
can not tell why, but I could not sleep any 
last night for thinking of you. For some 
time I have had several hundred golden 
11 


162 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


guilders lying in that chest (a golden guild- 
er is a German coin worth about two dol- 
lars of our money), and all night long I 
was haunted by the thought that you needed 
this money, and that I ought to give it to 
you. If this be so, then there it is, take it by 
all means; and don’t trouble yourself about 
paying it back. If you are ever able to 
make it up again, well and good ; if not, 
never mind.” 

“Yes, my kind friend,” said the pastor’s 
wife, “I do most certainly need it. Yester- 
day three letters came, telling us that our 
three boys would be sent home unless the 
bills for their boarding were paid at once. 
We had nothing to pay them with, and I 
spent the greater part of the night praying 
to God for help.” 

“Is that so ? ” asked her astonished friend. 
“How strange and wonderful! Now I am 
doubly glad that I asked you to come.” 

Then she went home with the golden guild- 
ers. How astonished her husband was when 
she laid them down on the table. And then 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 163 


he learned this lesson, that faith and prayer 
while good for other things, are also good 
sometimes for paying bills. And when we 
think of the prayer of Jesus at the grave of 
Lazarus, we see the beauty of his work. 

But in raising Lazarus ice see the power 
of Jesus. And this is the third thing that 
shows the beauty of his work. 

Jesus did many things while he was on 
earth which showed his power, but nothing 
did this more, than the raising of Lazarus. 
When he opened the eyes of the blind, when 
he cleansed the lepers, and healed the sick, 
and cast out devils, he was showing his power. 
When he walked upon the sea as on dry 
land, and when he hushed the angry storm 
to instant stillness, by a word, he was show- 
ing his great power. But the raising of Laz- 
arus showed his power more than any thing 
else he ever did, while he was on earth. 
Lazarus had been dead four days. For four 
days his body had been as cold as marble. 
For four days the blood in his veins had 
stopped flowing; for four days the heart had 


164 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


ceased its beatings, and had been still; for 
four days his spirit had left the body, and 
had been in that unseen world, which the 
souls of men go to, when they die. But 
.when Jesus stood by the open mouth of that 
dark grave and cried out — “Lazarus, come 
forth ” ; all that death had done to that bur- 
ied man was undone in a moment. The 
cold body grew warm. The blood in his 
veins that had dried up, and stopped flow- 
ing, became liquid and began to flow again. 
The still, quiet heart, which had ceased its 
beating, and had been standing still for four 
days, began to beat once more. And the 
spirit of Lazarus, away off in the world of 
spirits, heard the call of Jesus. In a moment 
it came flying back and once more entered 
that dead body, which had so long been its 
home before. And Jesus did all this by his 
own power. 

AVhen the prophet Elijah wished to raise 
the widow woman’s dead son to life again, 
he kneeled down and prayed, saying, “0, 
Lord my God, I pray thee let this child’s 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 165 


soul come into him again.” But when Jesus 
wished to raise his dead friend Lazarus to 
life, he had only to speak and it was done. 
The voice of Jesus had power to do all that 
he wished to have done. And the power 
that Jesus has, makes the work that he does 
seem beautiful. 

The last time I came from England I was 
a passenger on board the steamer Scotia 
of the Cunard Line. During that voyage I 
remember going one day, with my good 
friend Dr. S. A. Clarke, now in heaven, down 
into the engine-room to see the machin- 
ery, which moved that huge vessel through 
the water. It was a very interesting sight. 
There was that vast engine. It seemed like 
a giant in iron, doing its work steadily, but 
quietly. The different parts of that huge 
machinery were all busy. The crank that 
turned the great iron shaft, to which the 
paddle-wheels were fastened, was of a pro- 
digious size. It seemed to me, as if there 
were a mountain of iron in that crank alone. 
And yet, notwithstanding its vast size, it 


166 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


kept going round and round as smoothly 
and as easily as the tiniest wheel of a watch. 
It was a beautiful thing to see an engine at 
work that had so much power in it. And 
after that, when I lay in my berth at night, 
it was a comfort to think of that engine. I 
wanted to get home again, and I felt sure 
that as that engine kept on working, and that 
great crank going round and round, there 
was power enough in it, by God’s blessing, to 
bring me “to the haven where I would be.” 

And so we may feel, when we think of 
standing by the grave of Lazarus, and there 
seeing the power which Jesus had to bring 
the dead man back to life. If Jesus could 
do that , he can do any thing. He said, “ all 
'power is given unto me in heaven and on 
earth.” It is a comfort to know this. Je- 
sus is working with this power, all the time, 
for the good of his people. And this power 
enables him to do any thing for us that he 
wishes to have done. Let us look at one 
or two examples of the way in which he 
uses this power. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 167 


HELPED THROUGH A DREAM. 

The late Rev. Dr. Bushnell, a well-known 
minister of New England, used to tell this 
story about a remarkable dream, and said he 
knew the story to be true. He had a friend 
living in the far West, who had been for 
many years, like Nimrod, “a mighty hunt- 
er.” His name was Captain Young. He was 
a kind of patriarch among the hunters in that 
part of the country. He was well known, 
and was greatly loved and respected. 

One night the old hunter had a strange 
dream. He dreamed that he saw a company 
of emigrants overtaken by a snow storm in 
crossing the Rocky Mountains, and perishing 
from cold and hunger. He had so clear and 
distinct a view in his dream, of the place 
where these people were, that he could have 
drawn a picture of it when he awoke. One 
thing that he saw in his dream made a par- 
ticular impression on his mind, this was a 
tall, perpendicular cliff of white rock that 
lifted itself up into the sky near where these 


188 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


people were, and which had a very peculiar 
appearance. In his dream he saw the men 
cutting off what appeared to be the tops of 
trees and struggling to get out of the deep 
gulf of snow. He saw the very looks of the 
persons in the snow, and noticed what great 
distress they seemed to be in. When he 
awoke he was greatly surprised. It seemed 
so much like a real scene he had been look- 
ing at, that he could hardly believe it was 
only a dream. 

Presently he fell asleep and dreamed the 
same dream over again, precisely as he had 
seen it before. In the morning he could 
think of nothing else but this strange dream. 

Going out after breakfast he met an old 
friend, who like himself had been a hunter 
in former days, and was well acquainted 
with the pass, across the mountains, known 
as the “Carson Valley Pass.” He told him 
about his dream, and described what he had 
seen in the dream, and especially the tall, 
perpendicular white rock. His friend told 
him that he recognized the place from his de- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 169 


scription of it, and then told him in what part 
of the pass he would find that singular look- 
ing rock. Captain Young was a Christian 
man. He believed what the Bible teaches 
about the providence of God. He felt satis- 
fied that there were some people up among 
the mountains in distress, and that this was 
the means God was usirig to have help sent 
to them. He began at once to collect a com- 
pany of men, and to send them up into the 
mountains with mules, and blankets, and nec- 
essary provisions. His neighbors laughed at 
him. “ Laugh away,” he said, “ as much as 
you please. I am able to do this; I have 
made up my mind to do it, and I will do it, 
for I am sure this dream comes from God.” 

The men were sent into the mountains a 
hundred and fifty miles distant, directly in 
the heart of the Carson Valley Pass. There 
they found scenery answering to what the 
captain had beheld in his dream. The tall, 
perpendicular white rock was there, and there 
they found a company of travellers over- 
whelmed by the snow, just as the captain 


170 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


had seen in his dream. Some of them had 
already perished, but the rest were relieved 
and brought safely back by the help the 
good captain had been led to send them, in 
consequence of that remarkable dream. Je- 
sus has power to work in this way, and this 
power makes his work seem beautiful. 

We have one more illustration of the way 
in which Jesus can use his power, in order 
to protect and take care of those who trust in 
him. This event occurred, too, in our great 
western country. We may call it 

god’s preserving power. 

This incident took place several years ago. 
It shows how wonderfully God protected the 
life of a little girl only nine years old, from 
the fierce wolves of the forest. The parents 
of this child are named Sutherland. They 
live in Platteville, Colorada. The story about 
this child was published in the Denver News 
of November 29th, 1875. 

This little girl went with her father one 
cold afternoon to the woods to find the 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 171 


cattle and bring them home. They had not 
gone very far when they found the calves; 
but the cows were not with them. They had 
wandered further away. So her father told 
the little girl to follow the calves home, 
while he went on to hunt up the cows. She 
did so, but the calves misled her, going off 
in a different direction; and before long the 
child found that she had missed her way 
and was lost in the forest. Soon night came 
on, a cold November night, and the hungry 
wolves were heard growling savagely around. 
With strange calmness the poor child kept 
walking slowly on and on all through the 
night, not knowing where she was going. 
The next day, which was Sunday, about ten 
o’clock in the morning, she reached in her 
wanderings the house of John Beebe, near 
a place called Evans, having traveled on 
for eighteen hours, and a distance of not 
less than twenty-five miles. When she was 
missed at home all the neighbors turned out 
to hunt for her, but in vain. There was 
great rejoicing in that neighborhood, when 


172 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


she was brought safely back. Many ques- 
tions were asked her about how she got 
through the night. In answer to these “she 
said that the wolves kept close to her heels, 
and snapped at her feet ; but her mother had 
told her that if she prayed to God and trusted 
in him, he would always take care of her, and 
so she knew the wolves wouldn’t hurt her, 
because God wouldn't let them." God wouldn’t 
let them ! Blessed, believing child ! Sweet, 
precious faith ! How I wish that you, and 
I, and all of us, had just such faith in God 
as this dear child had! Here we have the 
story of Daniel over again, in our own day 
and country. The God of Daniel has the 
same power now that he had then. And if 
we only had the faith of Daniel, and the 
faith of this dear child, we should have more 
of this power put forth for our help and 
deliverance. 

And when we think of Jesus raising Laza- 
rus from the dead we see three things that 
show us the beauty of his work. These are 
the — pity — the prayer — and the power — of 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 173 


Jesus. Let us learn to pity those in trouble, 
as Jesus pitied them. Let us pray for them 
as Jesus prayed. And though we can not 
exercise the same power, that he exercised in 
doing our work; yet we may be sure that 
that power will help us, and will protect and 
bless us, as we work for him. And so we 
may well say that in the raising of Lazarus 
we see 


The Beauty of the Kings Work. 



THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WOKK. 


THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. 



VI. 

THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WOKK. 

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. 

“ I am the Resurrection .” — John xi. 25. 

These words were spoken by Jesus to Mar- 
tha, the sister of Lazarus, whom Jesus loved. 
He generally made his home at their house 
in Bethlehem, when he was at Jerusalem. 
Lazarus was dead, and had been buried four 
days before. But Jesus was going to raise 
him from the dead. How he did this we 
saw in our last sermon. And now he wished 
to comfort Martha, by telling her that he had 
the power to raise the dead. This was what 
he meant when he said, “ I am the Kesurrec- 
tion.” The resurrection means, raising the 
dead to life again. Jesus wished Martha to 
know that he had the power to do this. 

12 


178 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


And he proved the truth of what he said 
directly after. For he went with the weep- 
ing sisters, Martha and Mary, to the grave 
of their dead brother. “ It was a cave and 
a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye 
away the stone.” Some of the men rolled 
it away. There is the open cave. We can 
look in and see the dead man lying there. 
The Jews did not use coffins, as we do. 
They simply wrapped their dead in grave- 
clothes. Jesus stands by the open grave 
and says, in a loud voice, “ Lazarus, come 
forth ! ” And in a moment the dead man 
starts into life, and walks forth from the 
grave. How well Jesus might say, “/ am 
the Resurrection .” 

And he was not only the resurrection to 
others, as to Lazarus, to the daughter of 
Jairus, and to the widow’s son at Nain, but 
he was the resurrection to himself also. He 
said to the Jews, when speaking of his own 
life, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay 
it down of myself. I have power to lay it 
down; and I have power to take it again” 

r 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 179 


(John x. 18). And so, though after he had 
been put to death on the cross, and was 
buried, death could not keep him. On the 
morning of the third day, he restored him- 
self to life. He rose from the dead by his 
own power. He was the resurrection to him- 
self. He came forth from the grave to die 
no more. As the apostle says, “ Death hath 
no more dominion over him.” And, from 
the very earliest times, large portions of the 
Christian Church have kept Easter Sunday, 
as a glad festival in memory of the resur- 
rection of Jesus. And we may very well 
rejoice when we think that Jesus has risen 
from the dead. For if Jesus had not risen, 
we should never rise. But when J esus rose 
from the dead, and came forth from the 
grave, he proved that he had power to raise 
you, and me, and all of us, from the grave. 
And this is what he meant when he said, 
“ I am the Resurrection.” He intended we 
should learn from this, that he has the power 
which is necessary to enable him to raise all 
the dead to life again, and that he will do 


180 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


this when the time comes that God has fixed 
for it. Every grave will one day be opened, 
and every dead person be made alive again. 
What Jesus wants us to know is, that he 
has the power to do this. And this is what 
he teaches us, when he says, “ I am the Res- 
urrection.” And so we may well say, in the 
language of the Apostles’ Creed, “/ believe 
in the resurrection of the dead.” 

In this sermon we are called upon to look 
at the beauty of the King’s work, as it is 
seen in the resurrection. 

It is not the resurrection of Jesus that we 
are now to speak about, but our own resur- 
rection, the resurrection of all people, or as 
we say, the general' resurrection. 

There are two thoughts about the resurrec- 
tion to be remembered; and two lessons from 
it to be learned: and in both of these we 
shall see the beauty of the King’s work. 

The thoughts and the lessons of the resurrection. 

The first thought to be remembered in 
connection with the resurrection is — that it 


IS VERY CERTAIN. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 181 


And there are two things which show 
how certain it is. One of these is what God 
teaches us about it outside of the Bible ; and 
the other what he teaches us about it inside 
of the Bible. Outside of the Bible God speaks 
to us and teaches us many important things. 
The world of nature around us, is like a great 
book, in which God is speaking to us all the 
time. And there are many things here that 
seem to speak to us of the resurrection. 

Day and Night speak to us about it. When 
evening comes, and the sun sets in the west, 
then it may be said that the day dies. Night 
is the grave in which the day is buried. And 
when the sun rises again in the morning, it 
is the resurrection of the day. 

And then the seasons of the year speak to 
us about the resurrection. In spring-time the 
year is young. In summer the year is of 
age. In autumn - the year grows old. In 
winter it dies. Winter is the grave in which 
the year is buried. And when spring comes 
back again, it brings the resurrection of the 
year. Then the trees begin to bud and put 


182 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


forth their fresh leaves, “the flowers appear 
upon the earth, the time for the singing of 
birds is come, and the voice of the turtle- 
dove is heard in the land.” And in all these 
things, God speaks to us about the resur- 
rection. 

The insects speak to us about the resurrec- 
tion. Here is a caterpillar. He spends his 
days in going about as a creeping thing. 
But when he comes to be an old caterpillar, 
and his crawling days are over, he weaves 
for himself a cocoon, which is like a little 
coffin. Then he lies down to take a long 
sleep. It seems as if he were dead. He re- 
mains there awhile, like a body that has 
been buried in the grave. But after a long 
time has passed by, that coffin opens, and the 
worm, or caterpillar, that seemed to be dead, 
comes out from its little coffin wondrously 
changed. It is turned into a butterfly. And 
no king upon his throne was ever so beau- 
tifully dressed as he is now. Look at his 
wings. Did you ever see such brilliant col- 
ors? How they glitter in golden glories as 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 183 


he flits about in the beams of the sun ! And 
so, every butterfly that we s^e in the bright 
summer days, is a little minister that God 
sends to preach to us about the resurrection. 

The frogs speak to us on this subject. Sup- 
pose we make a visit to a frog-pond. There 
are plenty of frogs in it, and we hear them, 
in different keys, uttering their hoarse, loud 
sounds, and singing bass. This is the part 
they take in the great hymn, which nature is 
always singing to the glory of God. When 
winter comes they disappear. But, they can 
not fly away, as the birds do, to find a warm- 
er climate till the cold weather is over. And 
so, in his goodness, God provides them with 
convenient and comfortable winter quarters, 
in the pond where they live. They go down 
to the bottom of the pond and bury them- 
selves in the mud. There they remain with- 
out either sense or feeling. It seems like 
sleep, or more like death, only they do not 
decay as dead things do. In this state they 
remain all winter. And now spring returns. 
The weather grows pleasant again. Some 


184 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


mild day in early spring we have a warm 
rain, and there is thunder with the rain. As 
the loud peals of thunder are heard sounding 
through the sky, like the archangel’s trum- 
pet of the last day, they wake up the frogs 
from their death -like sleep, and then the 
croaking for another season begins again. 
And so, when we hear the familiar sounds 
they make, we may well say that God is 
making use of the hoarse voices of the frogs, 
to speak to us of the resurrection. 

These are some of the ways in which God 
speaks to us about the resurrection outside 
of the Bible. 

But it is in the Bible that he speaks most 
plainly to us on this subject. Nothing in the 
world is more certain than that Jesus rose 
from the dead. But God tells us that it is 
just as certain we shall rise from the dead, 
as it is that Jesus did rise. If you wish 
to read what God says on this subject, you 
will find it in the fifteenth chapter of First 
Corinthians, from the 20th to the 22d verse : 
“ Now is Christ risen from the dead, and be- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 185 


come the first-fruits of them that slept. For 
since by man came death, by man came also 
the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam 
all die, even so in Christ shall all he made alive .” 
When it says here, that “all shall be made 
alive,” it means that all shall be raised from 
the dead. This makes the resurrection cer- 
tain. This is enough to settle the matter, 
if there was nothing else in the Bible about 
it. But there is something else. There is 
one passage in which Jesus himself speaks 
of it. His words are so clear, and so strong, 
that they should remove all doubt about 
the resurrection. I refer now to John v. 28. 
Here Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, that the hour is coming in which all 
that are in their graves shall hear the voice of 
the Son of man , and shall come forth.” This 
makes it so sure that nothing more need be 
said on this point. 

The other thought about the resurrection 
is, that it will be very wonderful. 

There will be many wonders about the res- 
urrection. The change itself of a dead thing, 


186 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


no matter what it is, to a live one, must al- 
ways be wonderful. Here, for example, is a 
walking-stick. It is dead and dry. These 
little marks upon it show where branches 
were growing on it when it was alive. Now 
suppose, as I hold it in my hand, this dead 
stick should come to life again. Suppose 
that each of these places where the branches 
used to be, should swell out, and bud, and 
put forth leaves, and that the bark should 
begin to grow over the outside of this cane, 
and roots should spring out from the bottom 
of it, and from being a dead stick it should 
become, at once, a live young tree. How 
very wonderful this would be ! Or, suppose 
that you and I are walking together in a 
cemetery. We come to an open grave. We 
stand at the edge of the grave and look 
down. There is a coffin at the bottom of 
the grave. It was put there many years ago. 
The lid of -the coffin has been taken off. The 
body in the coffin has turned to dust. Only 
the bones of the skeleton remain. There they 
lie in the coffin just as they were left when 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 187 


the mouldering flesh fell from them. Every 
bone is in its place. But they are all loose. 
There is nothing to hold them together. But, 
suppose that while we are looking at it, the 
sinews, or strings, that once bound those 
bones together, should come back and bind 
them to each other again. And then sup- 
pose, that we should see the flesh begin to 
grow all over those bones. Then the skin 
comes and covers the flesh. The hair grows 
out on the head. The mouth, the nose, the 
ears, the eyes, are in their proper places. 
And inside the body is the breast, with all 
its wonderful contrivances. It begins to beat 
again. The lungs begin to breathe. The 
bosom rises and falls. The paleness of death 
leaves the cheeks and the rosy hue of health 
takes its place. The eyes open. The man 
rises to his feet and leaps out of the grave, 
a strong, hearty, living man ! How very 
wonderful this would be ! To see one such 
change as this would be wonderful. But at 
the time of the resurrection there will be 
not one nor a few such changes, but hun- 


188 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


dreds, and thousands, and millions of them. 
Every grave in all our crowded cemeteries 
will be opened then. No matter where any 
body has been buried, or whether it has been 
buried at all, it must rise from the dead. 
How many persons have been drowned in 
the depths of the sea ! How many have been 
burned by fire, or devoured by wild beasts ! 
It makes no difference. God knows where 
to find all that belongs to every particular 
body, and how to make it alive again. It 
was easy for him to make our bodies out 
of nothing, in the beginning; and it will be 
easier for him to make them all out of some- 
thing, when he wants to do so. And when 
we think of this great change taking place 
in such multitudes of cases, we see how very 
wonderful the resurrection will be. 

And then, the resurrection will be very 
wonderful, too, in the way of doing it. Some 
people are not willing to believe in the res- 
urrection, because, they say, it is a thing too 
hard to be done. Now, if you or I had to 
do it — if all the men in the world or all the 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 189 


angels in heaven had to do it — this would 
be a good reason, for not believing it. It 
would be too hard for us and too hard for 
them. But the resurrection will be the work 
of God, and not of men or angels. The power 
of God is that by which it is to be done. 
And we know that “nothing is too hard 
for the Lord.” “All things are possible with 
him.” Whatever he desires to do, he can 
easily do. And when he begins this work 
of the resurrection it will not take him long. 
The apostle Paul tells us that it will be done 
“ in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye ” (I 
Cor. xv. 52). When God made the world 
it was done at his word. “ God said , Let 
there he light, and there was light ” (Gen. i. 3). 
David says, u He spake, and it was done; he 
commanded, and it stood fast ” (Ps. xxxiii. 9). 
And so, we are told, he will do this great 
work of the resurrection. God will send an 
archangel from heaven to sound a trumpet; 
and while that trumpet is sounding, the voice 
of God will be heard speaking to all that 
are in their graves. “They will hear that 


190 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


voice and will come forth.” As St. Paul says, 
“ The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall he 
raised .” As Jesus stood by the grave of Laz- 
arus and called him back to life, so it will be 
just as if he were standing by your grave, 
and my grave, and every grave, calling each 
one by name, to come out from the grave. 
And every one called, will come forth. How 
wonderful this will be ! 

And then the resurrection will he wonderful in 
the beauty that will mark the bodies of those who 
are raised. I can not tell any thing about 
the bodies of those who are not Christians. 
But, if we love Jesus, I can tell just how 
our bodies will look when they rise from the 
grave. Suppose that you and I were stand- 
ing on the top of Mount Tabor, if that was 
the place, where Jesus was transfigured. 
Moses and Elijah have come down from 
heaven on a visit to him. Look, there is 
Jesus, sitting on that rock. And see what 
a change is taking place in his appearance! 
His clothing becomes as white as snow, 
whiter than any body on earth could make 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING'S WORK. 191 


it. His face becomes bright and shining like 
the sun, only still more glorious! And this 
is the pattern according to which our bodies 
will be made at the resurrection, for the apos- 
tle says he will u change our vile bodies , and 
make them like unto his own glorious body ” 
(Phil. iii. 25). And in another place we are 
told that “when he shall appear, ice shall be 
like him ” (I John iii. 2). I suppose our 
bodies will be in size, and shape, and gen- 
eral appearance, very much like what they 
are now, so that we shall know one another 
as easily as we now do; only all imperfec- 
tions will be removed, and they will be made 
to look perfectly glorious. Suppose you have 
the image of a little man made of iron, or 
clay, and suppose this image were changed 
to silver, or gold. You could tell it in a 
moment, as soon as you saw it. And you 
would be ready to say, “Why, only look; 
here’s my old clay image turned to gold! 
How beautiful it looks ! ” And when we think 
how changed our bodies will be at the resur- 
rection, when we think what multitudes of 


192 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


these bodies there will be, when we think of 
the wonderful way in which this change will 
be brought about, and of the great beauty 
that will mark them, we may well see — how 
wonderful the resurrection will be! 

These are the two thoughts we should re- 
member when we think about the resurrec- 
tion: it is very certain ; and it will be very 
wonderful. And here we see the beauty of 
the King’s work. 

And now we come to speak of the resur- 
rection as showing the beauty of the King’s 
work, in the lessons that it teaches us. 

There are two lessons taught us by the resur- 
rection, that we should try to learn and practice. 

These are the two most important lessons 
we shall ever have to learn. And they are 
lessons we should begin to learn now, while 
we are young. 

One lesson is — how to live. 

We can not understand what God has put 
us in this world for, and how he wants us to 
live here, till we learn about Jesus and the 
Resurrection. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 193 


THE FINAL EXAMINATION. 

You know that the United States govern- 
ment has a large military academy at West 
Point, on the North River. There the officers 
for our army receive their education. The 
course of study they have to pass through is 
long, and very severe. When they have fin- 
ished their studies, before leaving the acad- 
emy, the students, or cadets as they are 
called, all have to pass through a last exam- 
ination. That examination is to decide the 
rank, or honor, they are to have in gradua- 
ting. And every good student feels anxious 
about that examination. If he shall pass 
that examination well, he will take a high 
and honorable position as he goes out in life. 
If he shall fail in his examination, it will be 
a disgrace to him, that he will hardly ever 
get over. 

A young man who was a student at West 
Point, some time ago, had been preparing 
for this examination with great care. He 
had been head of his class all through the 
13 


194 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY 


academy. He wished to pass such an exam- 
ination that he might graduate at the head 
of his class. He was so anxious and excited 
about it, that when the examination began, 
and the first question was asked him, -he 
fainted and fell senseless on the floor. 

That young man had been thinking about 
this last examination all the time he was 
in the academy. He was trying every day 
to be such a good student that he might 
be sure to pass a successful examination at 
last. And he did so. The thought of that 
examination, taught him how to live as a 
student. 

And this is the lesson we should learn 
from thinking about the resurrection. Im- 
mediately after the resurrection, will come 
the last judgment. That will be our great 
examination. If we pass that examination 
well, we shall have honor and happiness for- 
ever. If we fail, then we shall be lost for- 
ever. It is only by loving, and serving, 
and believing in Jesus, that we can pass 
safely through the last judgment. But noth- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 195 


ing will help us to do this so well as un- 
derstanding and believing what the Bible 
teaches about the resurrection. 

We have all heard about the great good 
that was done in England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land, through God’s blessing on the labors 
of those two earnest Christian men from this 
country, Messrs. Moody and Sankey. Here 
is a story connected with their work that 
illustrates this point of our subject. We may 
call it — 

THE GYPSY FORTUNE-TELLER. 

Some young men who had been converted 
through the preaching of Mr. Moody, wished 
to try and do some good themselves ; and in 
the hope of being useful to others, they be- 
gan to hold religious meetings, in which they 
read the Scriptures, and talked to the peo- 
ple of “ Jesus and the resurrection.” A band 
of gypsies was strolling through that part 
of the country. A woman belonging to this 
band attended one of these meetings. There 
she heard, for the first time in her life, 


196 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


what the Bible teaches about the resurrec- 
tion. God blessed what she heard to the 
good of her soul. She was led to repent of 
her sins, and became an humble believer in 
Jesus. And so, thinking about the resur- 
rection taught her how to live. 

Not long after this, several wild young 
men, who wanted to have some sport, vis- 
ited the gypsies’ encampment. They hap- 
pened to come to this woman who had be- 
come a Christian, and asked her if she could 
tell them their fortunes. She said she could, 
and invited them into her tent; “for,” said 
she, “ I have the best fortune-telling book in 
the world.” 

Then opening her basket, in which she had 
formerly kept her charms and books, that 
pretended to tell the meaning of dreams and 
such things, she took out a New Testament. 
Opening this book, she turned to the last 
verse of the third chapter of St. John’s Gos- 
pel, and read these words: 

“ He that belie veth on the Son of God hath 
everlasting life; and he that belie veth not 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 197 


the Son hath not life, but the wrath of Gocl 
abideth on him.” 

“There, my friends,” she added, “that is 
what God says about your fortunes ; and you 
may be very sure that every word of it is 
true.” 

The young men were greatly surprised. 
This was a kind of fortune-telling that they 
had not expected. They went away from 
the gypsy’s tent, but they could not go away 
from the words of God, which the gypsy 
woman had spoken to them. Those words 
became the power of God to their salvation. 
From being wild, thoughtless young men, 
they became humble, earnest Christians. 

Mr. Moffatt, the celebrated missionary to 
Southern Africa, tells a very good story of 
the effect produced on the mind of an Afri- 
can chief, when he first heard the missionary 
preach about this great Bible doctrine of the 
resurrection. It illustrates this part of our 
subject very strikingly. 

Mr. Moffatt was making a long journey 
into the interior of Africa, hundreds of miles 


198 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


away from his own station. In the course 
of his journey he wished to visit a famous 
chief named Macaba, who was a great war- 
rior. He had fought many battles and killed 
multitudes of people. He was the terror of 
all his enemies. Some people in the neigh- 
boring tribes tried to persuade Mr. Moffatt 
not to visit this chief. They said he was 
risking his life in going there. But the mis- 
sionary trusted in God and went. Macaba 
received him very kindly and asked a great 
many questions about the religion of Jesus. 

One day Mr. Moffatt went by special re- 
quest, or invitation, to have a great “pala- 
ver,” as they call it there, or a talk, with this 
man of war and bloodshed. He found him 
waiting for him, with fifty or sixty of his 
head men and warriors seated around him. 

On this occasion the missionary talked to 
the chief about the resurrection, and told him 
what the Bible teaches us on this subject. 

After listening for a while, the chief start- 
ed with surprise, and exclaimed — 

“What! what are these words about the 





THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 199 


dead? The dead — the dead arise, did you 

,. y r 

“Yes,” said the missionary, U 6R the dead 
will arise.” 

“Will my father arise?” 

“Yes,” said the missionary. 

“ Will all that have been killed and eaten 
by lions, and tigers, and crocodiles, arise?” 

“Yes; and come to judgment.” 

Turning to his warriors, the chief shouted, 
“ Hark, ye wise men, did your ears ever hear 
such strange words as these?” 

Then, turning to the oldest man among 
them, who was considered the wise man of 
their tribe, he asked, “Did you ever hear 
such news as this?” 

“Never,” said the old man; “I thought I 
knew a good deal : that I had all the knowl- 
edge of the ancients: but these words are 
too much for me. This man must have lived 
before our oldest men were born ! ” 

Then the frightened chief laid his hand 
on the shoulder of the missionary and said, 
“Father, I love you much. Your visit has 


200 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


made my heart white, like milk. The words 
of your mouth are sweet like honey; but 
these words of a resurrection must not be 
spoken again. I do not wish to hear any 
more about the dead rising. The dead can 
not rise. The dead shall not rise.” 

“ Tell me, my friend,” said the missionary, 
“ why I must not speak of the resurrection.” 

Lifting his arm which had been strong 
in battle, and shaking his hand as if grasp- 
ing a spear, the chief said, “I have slain 
thousands and they must not rise again.” 

You see, this heathen man felt that he 
could not go on fighting and killing men, 
and living as he had been doing, if he be- 
lieved in the resurrection. If this was true, 
he knew that he would have to live a dif- 
ferent life. And so it will be with us. If 
we understand what the Bible teaches us 
about the resurrection, and really believe it 
in our hearts, one lesson that it will teach 
us is — how to live. 

The other lesson it will teach us is — how to 


die. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 201 


There are many things in this world that 
are very uncertain; but this is not one of 
them. Whatever else we are not sure about, 
we may be very sure about this. We must 
die. I must die. You must die. All of us 
must die. We can get rid of some things: 
but we can not get rid of this. And if this 
is so, then the most important lesson in the 
world for us to learn is this — how to die. I 
mean by this, how to die without being 
afraid of death: how to die a happy death. 

Now the Bible speaks of death as having 
a sting. This sting is sin. But when Jesus 
pardons our sins, this sting is taken away. 
Then death becomes a harmless thing, and 
there is no reason why we should be afraid 
of it. Then it is true, as the hymn says, 
that — 

“Death is but the servant Jesus sends 
To call us to his arms.” 

This idea that death is the servant of Je- 
sus, was very sweetly expressed, in different 
language, by a Christian woman who was 


202 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


suddenly taken very ill, and was just about 
to die. 

“You are dying,” said a friend who was 
with her. “ Shall I not send for a clergyman 
to come and pray with you?” 

“Oh, no; never mind,” she said, “I am 
ready to die at any moment.” 

“But are you not afraid to die?” 

“No,” she said very cheerfully, “I am not 
afraid; for I belong to death’s Master. I 
am a sinner saved by grace, a child of the 
resurrection.” 

And when we love Jesus, and understand 
and believe what the Bible teaches about him 
and the resurrection, then we may well say 
that we “belong to death’s Master.” There 
is nothing in death for us to be afraid of 

Here are two boys who are going to dive 
into the water, but under very different cir- 
cumstances. One of them is standing on a 
rock that overlooks the ocean. The water 
beneath him is rough and dark. He knows 
nothing about this water into which he has 
to dive. He can not tell how deep this water 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 203 


is, nor wliat danger there may be in it. He 
has heard about sharp, jagged rocks in the 
sea, and dangerous whirlpools, and horrible 
monsters, ready to eat up whatever comes in 
their way. Whether any of these things are 
in the water before him he can not tell. 
They may be all there. When he dives into 
this water he can not tell what may happen 
to him ; or whether he will ever come up out 
of the water again. And under these cir- 
cumstances we do not wonder to find that 
the boy is not willing to dive. He shrinks 
back at the thought of the unknown dangers 
that may lie hid under that dark water. 

This illustrates what death is to those who 
do not love Jesus, or know about the resur- 
rection. 

And now let us look at the other boy. He 
is going to dive into a pond in his father’s 
meadow. He knows that his father had the 
pond made. He knows just how deep it is. 
He knows that there are no rocks, or whirl- 
pools, or horrible monsters, or dangers of any 
kind in that pond. He knows perfectly well 


204 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


that when he dives into that water, he will 
only remain a little while under it ; and then 
he will come up again, all safe and sound. 
We do not wonder that this boy is not afraid 
to dive. And this illustrates what death is 
to us when we love Jesus, and believe what 
the Bible tells us about the resurrection. 

Then we can very well say in the words 
of the hymn — 

“I would not live alway; no, welcome the tomb; 

Since Jesus hath lain there, I dread not its gloom: 
There sweet be my rest, till he bid me arise, 

To hail him in triumph descending the skies.” 

And so we see that when we understand 
and believe what Jesus teaches us about the 
resurrection, it will teach us — how to die. 

BABY, COME FORTH. 

A little child was taken once to the funeral 
of one of his young companions. He had 
never seen a dead body before. He looked 
long and earnestly on the beautiful form of 
his little friend as it lay, like a piece of wax- 
work, or of polished marble, in the dark cof- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 205 


fin, with flowers all over it. He did not go 
to the cemetery. His mother took him, and 
let him stand at the window, where he could 
see the funeral procession of his playmate go 
by. He looked at it with fixed attention for 
a while. Then he turned to his mother, and 
his face lighted up with gladness ; as he said : 

“ Oh, mamma, how beautiful it will be 
when Jesus says, Baby, come forth!" 

The little fellow was thinking, no doubt, 
of what he had heard about Jesus standing 
by the grave of his friend, in Bethany, when 
he said — “ Lazarus, come forth ! ” 

That dear child was making the right use 
of what the Bible teaches us about J esus and 
the resurrection. In the morning of the res- 
urrection, Jesus will speak, in that way, to 
all the dead children, and to all his people, 
who died believing on him. And it will in- 
deed “ be beautiful token they come forth!" 

“ WE’LL ALL MEET AGAIN IN THE MORNING.” 

A little child, who had been taught about 
Jesus was dying. It was at the close of a 


206 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


bright summer day. The sun was setting 
and his red rays were shining through the 
window, on the bed where he lay. The 
child’s mother had died some time before. 
His father sat weeping by the bedside of 
his darling child. Stretching out his hand 
the little one said — 

“Good-by, papa; mamma has come for me 
to-night. Don’t cry, papa, welt all meet again 
in the morning /” 

How sweet this was! Here we see that 
what this dear child had learned about the 
resurrection had taught it how to die . 

The resurrection will come like the morn- 
ing, after a long, dark night. And then, if 
we love and serve Jesus here, we shall “all 
meet together in the morning.” A beautiful 
and blessed meeting that will be! 

Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection.” 

Remember the two thoughts about the res- 
urrection — very certain, and very wonderful ; 
and the two lessons — how to live, and how 
to die. 

Let us try to remember these two thoughts, 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S WORK. 207 


and learn these two lessons, and then we 
shall see the beauty of the King’s work in 
the resurrection, and shall be making a right 
use of it. 




THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 


THE LESSON OF TRUST. 
























THE BEAUTY OE THE KING’S LESSONS. 


THE LESSON OF TRUST. 

“ What time I am afraid I will trust in thee” 
Psalm lvi. 3. 

Perhaps some of you may think that grown- 
up men ought never to be afraid. But this 
is a mistake. Strong men, and good, and 
wise, and brave, are sometimes afraid; yes, 
and they have reason to be afraid. David 
was a man when he wrote this psalm. He 
was a strong man, a wise, a good, and brave 
man. He was a great king and a great sol- 
dier. He had fought many great battles, and 
gained many great victories. When he was 
only a boy he was not afraid to go alone and 
fight with the wild beasts — the lion and 
the bear — that stole away the lambs from 
his flocks. And when the great Philistine 
giant, Goliath, came to defy the army of 


212 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


Israel and challenged any of their soldiers 
to come and fight with him, the bravest 
among them were afraid of him, and were 
ready to run away as soon as they saw him. 
But David was not afraid of him. Although 
he was only a lad and had never been in a 
battle, yet he went bravely out, all by him- 
self, without a sword, without a shield, or 
spear, or a bit of armor on, and with noth- 
ing in his hand but his sling and his stone, 
he fought with that great monster of a man. 
David was a very brave man. And yet he 
was not ashamed to speak about the times 
when he felt afraid. And if this was so 
with David, it may well be so with us. We 
need not be ashamed to say that there are 
times when we are afraid. The one great 
thing that makes people afraid is — sin. Sin 
and fear always go together. If we were 
not sinners we never should be afraid. The 
good angels are not afraid because they have 
never sinned. Adam and Eve never knew 
what fear was till after they had sinned. 
But then, as soon as they heard God speak- 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 213 


ing to them “they hid themselves among the 
trees of the garden, because they were afraid .” 
And so, if we did not know that we were 
sinners, we should have nothing to fear. It 
is only sin that makes us afraid. But, be- 
cause we are sinners, there are many times 
when we are afraid. Some persons are afraid 
to be alone ; afraid, to be in the dark ; afraid, 
when it thunders ; afraid, when they are sick ; 
afraid, when they are in a storm at sea, and 
afraid when they are going to die. David 
speaks here of the times when he was afraid, 
but he does not tell us what those times 
were. Yet he shows us here how to get 
rid of our fear, or what to do when we are 
afraid. He says — “ What time I am afraid , I 
will trust in thee." 

The subject which this text brings before 
us is — The lesson of trust. It is one of the 
lessons we are taught by Jesus our King; 
and we may see the King’s beauty in the 
lessons that he teaches. 

But before going any farther let me say 
that these words only refer to those who are 


214 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


true Christians, or who are really trying to 
love and serve God. We have no right to 
trust in God till we are sorry for our sins, 
and believe in Jesus, and are trying to please 
him. Then, indeed, what time we are afraid, 
we may trust in God. 

I wish to speak of three things that may 
help us to learn this lesson of trust when 
we are afraid. Each of these three things 
begins with the letter P ; and so it may help 
us to remember this sermon if we think of 
the three Ps. 

And the first thing that should lead us to trust 
in God when we are afraid is — the thought of 

his PRESENCE. 

But the thought of God’s presence affects 
different people in different ways. If we do 
not love God, and are not trying to serve 
him, it will not comfort us to think about 
him. I suppose it was when David was liv- 
ing in sin that he said, “I remembered God 
and was troubled .” When we know that we 
are doing wrong we want to get away from 
God, or to forget all about him. 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 215 


I remember hearing of a girl who went 
into a room belonging to the gentleman for 
whom she worked, — a room that was not 
often used, — in order to steal something. 
Hanging over the mantel was a portrait 
of the gentleman’s father. The girl looked 
at this portrait, and its eyes seemed to be 
gazing at her. Whatever part of the room 
she went to, those eyes followed her. She 
felt uncomfortable. “ I can’t steal while those 
eyes are looking right straight at me,” she 
said to herself. Then she got a chair, and 
took a pair of scissors, and bored out the eyes 
of the portrait. And when she felt that she 
was rid of those troublesome eyes, she went 
on to steal as she wished to do. But she 
forgot that God’s eyes were looking at her, 
and that she never could put them out. 

That is the way the thought of God makes 
us feel when we are doing wrong. But 
when we love God, and feel that he is our 
best friend, then the thought of his presence 
always gives us comfort and takes away our 
fear. 


216 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


god’s PRESENCE A COMFORT IN BANISHMENT. 

A company of good Christian people had 
once been sentenced to banishment on ac- 
count of their religion. They were to be 
sent away to a wild and desolate part of the 
country. As they were passing out from the 
place where they had lived, some persons 
were standing by looking at them. One of 
these said to a friend standing near: 

“ I pity these poor people very much. 
They have to leave home behind them, with 
all its comforts, and go to live in such a bar- 
ren and desolate place.” 

“That is true,” said his friend, “but you 
forget one thing. These good people will 
have God’s presence with them, and that 
will be better than home and any society 
they could have there. God will go with 
them, and his presence will be the best com- 
fort.” 

This is just what good John Newton 
thought, when he wrote that hymn about 
God’s presence, in which he says: 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 217 


“ While blest with a sense of his love, 

A palace a tov would appear ; 

And prisons would palaces prove, 

If Jesus would dwell with me there.” 

TRUST IN GOD. 

“ Mother,” said a little girl, “ what did 
David mean when he said, ‘Preserve me, 
O God, for in thee do I put my trust?”’ 

“Do you remember,” said her mother, “the 
little girl we saw walking with her father 
in the woods yesterday?” 

“Oh, yes, mother, wasn’t she beautiful?” 

“ She was a gentle, loving little thing, and 
her father was very kind to her. Do you re- 
member what she said when they came to 
the narrow bridge over the brook?” 

“ I don’t like to think about that bridge, 
mother; it makes me giddy. Don’t you think 
it is very dangerous — just those two loose 
planks laid across, and no railing? If she 
had stepped a little on either side, she would 
have fallen into the water.” 

“ Do you remember what she said ? ” asked 
the mother. 


218 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“Yes, ma. She stopped a minute, as if she 
was afraid to go over, and then looked up 
into her father’s face, and asked him to take 
hold of her hand, and said, ‘You will take 
hold of me, dear father; I don’t feel afraid 
when you have hold of my hand.’ And her 
father looked so lovingly upon her, and took 
tight hold of her hand, as if she were very 
precious to him.” 

“Well, my child,” said the mother, “I think 
David felt just like that little girl, when he 
wrote the words you have asked me about.” 

“Was David going over a bridge, mother?” 

“ Not such a bridge as the one we saw in 
the woods; but he had come to some diffi- 
cult place in his life, there was some trouble 
before him that made him feel afraid; and 
he looked up to God, just as that little girl 
looked to her father, and said, ‘Preserve me, 
0 God, for in thee do I put my trust.’ It is 
just as if he had said, ‘ Please take care of 
me, my kind heavenly Father; I do not feel 
afraid when thou art with me and taking 
hold of my hand.’” 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 219 


And here we see what David means in our 
text when he says — “What time I am afraid, 
I will trust in thee.” The thought of God’s 
presence took away his fear and gave him 
comfort. This helped him to learn the lesson 
of trust. 


A BOY’S FAITH. 

Two little boys were talking together about 
a lesson they had been receiving from their 
grandmother on the subject of Elijah’s going 
to heaven in the chariot of fire. “I say, 
Charley,” said George, “ but wouldn’t you be 
afraid to ride in such a chariot?” 

“Why no,” said Charley, “I shouldn’t be 
afraid, if I knew that the Lord was driving .” 

And that was just the way David felt 
when he said — “What time I am afraid, I 
will trust in thee.” He knew that neither 
chariots of fire, nor any thing else, could 
hurt him, if God was present as his protector 
and friend. 


220 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


COMFORT IN GOD’S PRESENCE. 

A ship was once tossing on the stormy 
sea. She had sprung a leak. It was impos- 
sible to stop the leak, and the angry waves 
were dashing over her deck. The captain 
said it was not possible to keep the ship 
afloat much longer, and their only hope of 
safety was to get into the life -boat. But 
that tiny little thing seemed only like a 
nutshell, as it was tossed about by the 
angry sea. Many stout hearts were afraid, 
when they thought of trusting themselves 
to that frail boat. Yet there was no help 
for it. 

One of the first who ventured into the 
boat, as it rose and fell beside the sinking 
ship, was a delicate woman with a babe in 
her arms, and a little boy clinging to her 
dress. The great billows tossed the little 
boat about, just as you would toss a ball. 
A gentleman was the next to get into the 
boat. As he took his seat beside the little 
boy, who neither cried nor spoke, he said, 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 221 


“Aren’t you afraid, my child, to be in such 
a storm?” 

“I don’t like the storm, sir,” he replied, 
“but mother is here, and I’m not afraid 
where mother is;” and he clung closer to 
her side. 

“And are you not afraid, madam?” said 
the gentleman to the mother. 

She shook her head, and pointing upwards 
she said, in a voice that could hardly be heard 
amidst the roaring of the storm, “ God is rul- 
ing the storm, sir. He is my Father and my 
best Friend. I know he is here, and I am 
not afraid of any thing where he is present.” 

That was just what David meant when he 
said, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in 
thee.” He felt that the thought of God’s 
presence was enough to take away all his 
fear. 

The gentleman in the boat was surprised 
at that mother’s trust in God, and to see 
how it took away her fear. But he was not 
a Christian. He could not look up to God 
as his Father and Friend; and the thought 


222 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


of his presence gave him no comfort. The 
little boat got safe to land, but the gen- 
tleman never forgot that Christian mother’s 
words of trust, spoken in the time of fear- 
ful danger. “What time I am afraid, I will 
trust in thee.” The first thing that should 
lead us to learn this lesson of trust is th e 
thought of Gods presence. 

The second thing that should lead us to learn 
this lesson is the thought of Gods power. 

The Bible teaches us that “power belong- 
eth unto God” (Ps. lxii. 11). And it invites 
us to have confidence in God for this very 
reason. It says, “Trust ye in the Lord for- 
ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
strength” (Isa. xxvi. 4). God can do any 
thing that he pleases. Nothing is hard or 
impossible for him to do. When he made this 
great and beautiful world, he just said how he 
wanted things to be, and they came out ex- 
actly so. The Bible tells us that — “He spake, 
and it was done ; he commanded, and it stood 
fast” (Ps. xxxiii. 9). When he wanted to 
have light, he said — “ Let there be light ; and 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 223 


there was light” (Gen. i. 3). And when he 
wanted to drown the world for its wicked- 
ness, he told the waters to come; and they 
came. And all the people in the world could 
neither stop them from coming, nor get out 
of their way when they came. And if this 
God is our Friend it will be a great comfort 
when we are in danger to think of him. The 
thought of his power may well lead us to 
trust him when we are afraid. 

Suppose we go and stand upon a rock by 
the sea-shore where the waves are dashing up. 
How strong that rock seems! The waves 
roll up and break in foam upon it, but they 
can neither move it, nor shake it. And if we 
look at the rock when the waves roll back 
and leave it bare, we shall find a number 
of tiny little shell-fish clinging to the sides 
of the rock. These are very weak. They 
have no power at all to resist the waves 
that dash against the rock. If they were 
left to themselves, the first wave that came 
would sweep them all away. But God has 
given them the tiniest little sort of fingers 


224 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


with which they can take fast hold of the 
rock. And when the great rolling waves 
come up, and sweep over the rock, they 
cling to its side and are safe. 

And God’s power is to us just what that 
rock is to the little shell-fish. And our faith 
in God is just like those little fingers by 
which the shell-fish cling to the rock. And 
so when we are afraid, the thought of God’s 
power should lead us to trust in him. 

A gentleman was walking down street one 
morning when he saw a little blind boy 
standing on the sidewalk, with his head bent 
forward as if listening for something. Step- 
ping up to him he said, 

“Shall I help you across the street, my 
little friend ? ” 

“Oh! no, thank you, sir; I’m waiting for 
my father.” 

“ Can you trust your father ! ” 

“Oh! yes; my father always takes good 
care of me. He leads me all the time, and 
when he has hold of my hand I feel perfectly 
safe.” 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 225 


“ But why do you feel safe ? ” 

“Raising his sightless eyes, with a sweet 
smile and a look of perfect trust, the dear 
boy said; “Oh! sir, because my father knows 
the way. I am blind, but he can see. I am 
weak, but he is strong.” 

And this is just the kind of feeling we 
should have towards God. He knows the 
ivay , and he is strong. The thought of his 
power should lead us to trust him, when we 
are afraid. 

A good woman was visiting among the 
poor, in London, one cold winter’s day. She 
was trying to open the door of a third- 
story room in a wretched looking house, 
when she heard a little voice inside say, 
“ Pull the string up high ! Pull the string 
up high ! ” She looked up and saw a string. 
She polled it, when it lifted the latch, and 
the door opened into a room where she found 
two little half naked children all alone. They 
looked cold and hungry. 

“Do you take care of yourselves, little 
ones?” said the good woman. 

15 


226 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“No, ma’am, God takes care of us,” replied 
the elder of the children. 

“You have no fire on this cold day. Are 
you not very cold ? ” 

“Oh! when we are very cold we creep 
under the quilt, and I put my arms round 
Tommy, and Tommy puts his arms round 
me, and we say, ‘Now I lay me,’ and then 
we get warm,” said the little girl. 

“ And what do you have to eat, pray ? ” 
asked the visitor. 

“When granny comes home she fetches 
us something. Granny says we are God’s 
sparrows, and he has enough for us. And 
so we say ‘Our Father’ and ‘daily bread’ 
every day. God is our Father.” 

Tears came into the eyes of this good wo- 
man. She had sometimes felt afraid that 
she might be left to starve; but these two 
little “ sparrows,” perched alone in that cold 
upper room, taught her a sweet lesson of 
trust in the power of God which she felt 
that she should not soon forget. 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 227 


PERFECT TRUST. 

A gentleman was walking one evening, 
with his little girl, upon a high bank, be- 
neath which ran a canal. The child was 
pleased with the look of the glistening wa- 
ter, and coaxed her father to take her down 
to it. 

“ The water looks so pretty. Please, papa, 
do take me down there,” she said. 

The bank was very steep and the road 
a mere sheep path. In getting down the 
gentleman had to take hold of his little 
girl’s arms and swing her from point to 
point. While doing this she would some- 
times be hanging in the air, directly over the 
water. Yet she only laughed and chuckled, 
but was not the least bit afraid, although she 
really seemed to be in great danger. 

At last they got down the bank and 
reached the tow-path in safety. Then tak- 
ing up his daughter in his arms he said, 
“Now tell me, Sophy, why you were not 


228 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


afraid when you were swinging in the air, 
right over the water?” 

Nestling her plump little cheek upon her 
father’s face, she said — 

“Papa had hold of Sophy’s hand; Sophy 
couldn’t fall!” 

This was very sweet. Here was a perfect 
trust. And this is just the feeling that David 
had towards God when he said, “ What time 
I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Sophy 
would have screamed with terror to find 
herself hanging over the water in the ca- 
nal, unless she had confidence in the person 
who had hold of her arms. But it was her 
father — her kind loving father — who held 
her, and so, “what time she would have 
been afraid she trusted in him.” And this 
is the feeling that we ought to have towards 
God. The thought of his power should lead 
us to trust in him. 

THE ANXIOUS AMBASSADOR. 

There is a good story told of an English 
ambassador that illustrates this part of our 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 229 


subject very well. It took place more than 
two hundred years ago, during the time of 
Oliver Cromwell. That was a period of revo- 
tion and war and of great trouble in Eng- 
land. The gentleman, to whom I refer, had 
been appointed ambassador to the court of 
Sweden. He had reached a sea-port town 
from which he was to sail the next morning. 
He expected to be absent from his country 
for some time, and things were in such an 
unsettled state that he felt very much dis- 
tressed at the idea of being away. He kept 
thinking about the country, and was so much 
troubled that he couldn’t sleep. He had a 
servant with him, who was a good Christian 
man, and had learned well this lesson of 
trust. He was sorry to see his master so 
worried and troubled about the country. So 
he came to him and said, “ Please, sir, will you 
allow me to ask you one or two questions ? ” 

“ Certainly,” said the ambassador. 

“Well, sir, don’t you think that God gov- 
erned the world very well before you came 
into it ? ” 


230 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“ Undoubtedly he did.” 

“And don’t you think he will be able to 
govern it quite as well when you are taken 
out of it?” 

“ Certainly he will.” 

“ Then, sir, please excuse me, but don’t you 
think you may as well trust him to govern 
it while you are in it?” 

To this he could give no answer. But it 
had a good effect upon him. It showed him 
the folly of trying to take the government 
out of God’s hands. He quit worrying. He 
cast away his fear. He trusted the country 
to God and went quietly to sleep. 

Just one other short illustration on this 
point. 


THE LOST BOY’S TRUST. 

A little boy and his brother were lost in 
a western forest. After being out a day and 
a night they were found. In giving an ac- 
count of what took place while they were in 
the woods, the little fellow said; 

“When it got dark I kneeled down and 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 231 


asked God to take care of little Jimmy and 
me, and then we went to sleep /” 

How simple, how beautiful that was! That 
little boy was feeling, and acting, just as 
King David did when he said — “I will both 
lay me down in peace and sleep ; for thou Lord 
only makest me to dwell in safety.” And so 
from all these examples, we see that the sec- 
ond thing which should lead us to learn the 
lesson of trust in God, is the thought of his 
power. 

The third thing that should lead us to learn 
this lesson is the thought of God's promises. 

God’s promises are given to us on purpose 
to help us in trying to learn this lesson of 
trust. These promises are made to apply to 
all the times and circumstances, in which we 
are most likely to be afraid. Sometimes, we 
are afraid that our strength will fail, and that 
we shall not be able to do what w§ have 
to do. And then God gives us this sweet 
promise; “Fear not, I am with thee; I will 
strengthen thee; yea I will help thee; yea I 
will uphold thee, with the right hand of my 


232 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


righteousness” (Isaiah xli. 10). Sometimes, 
we are afraid of the anger and violence of 
wicked men, and then God says to ns, as he 
did to his servant Abraham of old, “Fear 
not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great 
reward” (Gen. xv. 1). Sometimes, we are 
afraid of the troubles and afflictions we 
may have to meet, as we go on in life ; and 
then God gives us this precious promise, 
“When thou passest through the waters I 
will be with thee; and through the rivers 
they shall not overflow thee ; when thou 
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be 
burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon 
thee” (Isaiah xliii. 2). The waters and the 
fires spoken of here, mean trials and afflic- 
tions; but if God is only with us we need 
not be afraid of them. Sometimes, when we 
think of dying, and of going above into 
an unknown world, we feel afraid, and our 
hearts sink within us. But, even when we 
think of meeting death, we may take up the 
language of David, and say — “Yea, though 
we walk through the valley of the shadow 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 233 


of death we will fear no evil; for thou art 
with us; thy rod and thy staff they comfort 
us” (Ps. xxiii. 4). God promises to “make 
all things work together for good, to them 
that love him” 7 (Rom. viii. 28). And all 
these promises are given to teach us the 
lesson of trust when we are afraid. 

a child’s trust in god’s promises. 

Here is a story of a poor little German boy, 
who had learned this lesson of trust, from 
God’s promises in the Bible. He wanted to 
enter the Moravian school to get an educa- 
tion; but his widowed mother was too poor 
to send him. So he wrote a letter, and di- 
rected it thus — “To the Lord Jesus Christ — 
in heaven” — and dropped it into the post- 
office. The letter ran thus: — 

“My Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ: 

“I have lost my father, and we are very 
poor. But thou hast promised, in thy word, 
that whatsoever we shall ask of God, in thy 
name, he will give it to us. I believe what 


234 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


thou sayest, Lord. I ask then, in the name 
of Jesus, that God will give my mother the 
money to send me to the Moravian school. 
I should like so much to go on with my 
learning. I pray unto thee already; but I 
will love thee more.” 

The postmaster was very much surprised 
at the direction on the letter. He knew that 
the mail had no connection with that coun- 
try, and that it was impossible to send the 
letter to heaven; so he opened it, and read 
it. He gave it to a member of the Mora- 
vian church. It was read at a meeting of 
their society. A rich lady present was so 
much interested in it, that she took charge 
of the little boy, and sent him to school as 
he desired. 


FAITH IN PROMISES. 

There was a captive once brought before 
a prince in Asia. He had been condemned 
to death for some offence, and was about to 
be beheaded in the presence of the prince. 
He had bowed his head, and the glittering 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 235 


sword was already lifted up to strike it off. 
But he was suffering dreadfully from thirst. 
He raised his head and asked for a drink of 
water. A cupful was handed him; he held 
it as if afraid that the sword would fall while 
he was drinking it. “Don’t be afraid,” said 
the prince, “ your life will be spared till you 
drink that water.” Trusting to that promise 
of the prince he instantly dashed the cup of 
water to the ground. The faith of the poor 
man, in the promise of the prince, saved his 
life. The prince would not break his prom- 
ise, and the man was allowed to go on his 
way rejoicing. 

TRUST IN A PROMISE. 

A little girl whose mother had always told 
her the truth, and taught her to trust in her 
promises, went with her one day to a large 
town. The child had been used to live in 
the quiet country, and the noise and bustle 
of the city were not pleasant to her. A great 
crowd was gathered to see some show in the 
street, and Lucy pressed her mother’s hand, 


236 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


for she felt afraid. “ Don’t be afraid, my 
child,” said her mother. “I won’t take you 
into any danger. Keep hold of my hand, 
and nothing will hurt you.” Lucy believed 
her mother, and was happy. 

After awhile it began to rain. The mother 
looked at her delicate little girl and said, 
“Lucy, dear, I am afraid to take you any 
further on account of the rain. I have some 
business in another part of the town. I must 
leave you in this store. Don’t go away from 
it, and I will come for you as soon as I get 
through my errands.” The child looked into 
her mother’s face and said, “You won’t forget 
me, I know.” 

Then her mother kissed her, and left her 
under the care of the store-keeper. 

At first she was amused by seeing the gay 
ribbons measured, and in watching the ladies 
who came in to do their shopping ; but after 
awhile she grew tired, and wished for her 
mother to come. Then, a little girl older 
than herself came in, and they began to 
talk together. Lucy told her, she was wait- 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 237 


ing for her mother, who had promised to 
come for her, when she got through her 
errands. 

“ Ar’n’t you afraid your mother may forget 
you?” asked the little girl. 

“No, I’m not afraid. I’m sure she won’t 
do that,” said Lucy. 

“How can you be sure? She may, you 
know.” 

“ She promised,” was the child’s reply, “and 
I never knew my mother break her promise.” 

Another hour passed away. How long it 
seemed to Lucy ! The customers had all 
gone home. The people in the store, were 
putting away their goods. It was growing 
dark, and the gas-lamps were lighted, but 
still her mother did not come. A lady came 
into the store whom Lucy knew. She lived 
near her father’s house, and offered to take 
her home, in her carriage. 

“No, thank you, ma’am,” said Lucy, “moth- 
er said she would come for me, and I know 
she will keep her promise.” 

At length her mother came. How glad 


238 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


Lucy was to see her ! And when they were 
sitting by the fireside, in the evening, her 
mother told her this was just the kind of 
trust that God wanted his children to ex- 
ercise. He gives us promises in his word, 
and expects us to believe them, just as we 
believe the promises of our parents and dear 
friends. “What time we are afraid” we must 
trust in his promise, and then we shall find 
comfort. The great promise of God in the 
Gospel is, “Whosoever believeth shall not 
perish.” The way to be saved is — just to trust 
in this promise with all our hearts. Then we 
need never be afraid about getting to heaven. 

I have just one more illustration of the 
way in which, the remembrance of God’s 
promises should help us to learn the lesson 
of trust in him, when we are afraid. 

a child’s faith. 

Johnny Hall was a poor boy. His mother 
worked hard for their daily bread. “Please 
give me something to eat, for I am very 
hungry,” he said to her one evening. His 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 239 


mother let the work that she was sewing 
fall upon her knees and drew Johnny tow- 
ards her. As she kissed him the tears fell 
fast on his face, while she said, “Johnny, 
my dear, I have not a penny in the world. 
There is not a morsel of bread in the house, 
and I can not give you any supper to-night.” 

Johnny didn’t cry when he heard this. He 
was but a little fellow, but he had learned 
the lesson of trust in God’s promises. He 
had great faith in the sweet words of Jesus 
when he said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
Father in my name, he will do it.” 

“Never mind, mamma, I shall soon be 
asleep, and then I sha’n’t feel hungry. But 
you must sit here and sew, hungry and cold. 
Poor mamma ! ” he said, as he threw his arms 
round her neck and kissed her many times to 
comfort her. 

Then he kneeled down by his mother’s 
side, to say his prayers after her. They said 
“Our Father” till they came to the petition, 
“give us this day our daily bread.” The 
way in which his mother said these words 


240 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


made Johnny’s heart ache. He stopped, and 
looked at her, and repeated them with his 
eyes full of tears — “Give us this day our 
daily bread.” When they got through he 
looked at his mother and said, “Now, moth- 
er, don’t be afraid. We shall never be hun- 
gry any more. God is our Father. He has 
promised to hear us, and I am sure he iviU." 

Then he went to bed. Before midnight he 
woke up, while his mother was still at work, 
and asked if the bread had come yet. She 
said, “No, but I am sure it will come.” 

In the morning, before Johnny was awake, 
a gentleman called, who wanted his mother 
to come to his house and take charge of his 
two motherless children. She agreed to go. 
He left some money with her. She went out 
at once, to buy some things for breakfast. 
And when Johnny awoke, the bread was 
there, and all that he needed. Johnny is a 
man now; but he has never wanted bread 
from that day ; and whenever he was afraid, 
since then, he has remembered God’s prom- 
ises and trusted in him. 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 241 


Let us remember these three Ps, the pres- 
ence , the power , and the promises of God, 
and this will help us to learn the lesson of 
trust. And in all our times of danger and 
of trial, let us try to follow the example of 
David, when he said — 

“What time I am afraid, I will trust in 
thee.” 


































VIII. 

THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 


THE LESSON OF GENTLENESS. 



















• 





VIII. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 

THE LESSON OF GENTLENESS. 

“A soft answer tumeth away wrath.” — Proverbs xv. i. 

If yon look at a house or barn in the coun- 
try, or some of the larger buildings in a city, 
you will often find an iron rod stretching up 
above the highest point, and then running 
down along the side of the building, into 
the ground. We call these lightning rods. 
They are very useful. In summer, when sud- 
den storms arise, and the lightning flashes, 
large buildings are in great danger. If they 
are not provided with these rods the light- 
ning, as it darts forth, will sometimes strike 
them. If they are wooden buildings they 
may be set on fire and burned down. If 
the buildings are of brick or stone they are 


246 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


sometimes rent, and shattered, and greatly 
injured. The persons who are in a building 
when it is struck by lightning, are often in- 
jured, and sometimes killed. But a lightning 
rod will protect a building from this danger. 
It lifts its pointed finger into the air, some- 
times with a single point, at other times 
with several points ; and when the lightning 
flashes out, this rod will attract it. And then, 
instead of striking the building and tearing 
it to pieces, the lightning, like a ball of fire, 
runs quietly along the iron rod down into 
the ground, and does no harm. This is the 
way in which the lightning rod protects a 
building from danger during a storm. 

But anger or wrath is like a storm. And 
the sharp, cross words, which persons speak 
when angry, are like the lightning that 
flashes out from the dark storm-cloud, as it 
passes over us. These angry words strike 
the hearts of those to whom they are spoken 
as the lightning strikes a building, and do 
much harm. But “ a soft answer,” says Solo- 
mon, “ turneth away wrath.” Such an an- 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 247 


swer is like a lightning rod. As that rod 
turns away the lightning from the bursting 
storm, and prevents it from doing injury, so 
the kind words of a gentle, loving person 
turn away the wrath of an angry man, and 
prevent the evil that would follow. 

By the “soft answer” here spoken of, is 
meant kind and gentle words. Solomon was 
not speaking for himself, but for our blessed 
Saviour. We may regard this text as teach- 
ing us one of his lessons. It is — The lesson 
of gentleness. And there are three great things 
in gentleness. As we look at these we shall 
see the beauty of the Kings lesson. And the 
thought of this beauty, should lead us to 
learn and practice this lesson. 

The first great thing that we find in gen- 
tleness is — Great Power. 

This shows us the beauty of the King’s 
lesson. 

The greatest powers that we find in nature 
do their work in the quietest and gentlest 
way. There is the sun for instance. He has 
great power and is using it all the time. 


248 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


Why, if all the steam engines in the world 
could be made to work together, they would 
not have half as much power as the sun has ; 
and yet the very smallest of those engines 
makes a great deal more noise than the sun 
does. You know how quietly the sun rises 
in the morning; how quietly he shines all 
the day ; and then, when evening comes, how 
quietly and gently he sinks behind the west- 
ern hills ! And real gentleness is like the 
sun in this respect, it has great power, but 
uses it in a quiet way. 

Anger or wrath is a powerful thing. If 
you storm at it, and use violence, you never 
can manage it. That is like going against 
the tide, or flying in the face of the whirl- 
wind. It only leads to trouble. But, when 
gentleness meets wrath or anger with its 
kind words and soft answer, the anger is con- 
quered or turned away. Let us see how this 
is done. 

A good Christian man was very much dis- 
liked by some of his neighbors, on account of 
his religion. They hired a man named John 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 249 


to strike him whenever he passed by him. 
Meeting this good man in the street, not 
long after, John struck him a hard blow. 
The man turned round and quietly said, 
“ May God bless you, my friend.” This was 
not what John expected. If the man had 
turned round and stormed at him, or called 
him hard names, he would not have minded 
it. Then he would have been willing to go 
on hitting him whenever he had a chance. 
But that “soft answer,” those gentle words, 
he could not stand, he took the money back 
to the persons who had hired him and said, 
“ Here, take your money. I wouldn’t strike 
that man again, for the world.” 

And this was not the end of it either. 
John was so convinced that there was some- 
thing more in this man’s religion, than he 
knew about, that he was led to pray earnest- 
ly to God, and finally he became a Christian 
himself. Here we see what great power there 
is in gentleness. 


250 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


THE POWER OF LOYE. 

A kind Christian lady, on a visit of charity, 
met with a poor little orphan girl, who had 
neither home nor friends. She brought her to 
her own home. But, finding herself among 
strangers, the poor child felt very unhappy. 
She sat in the hall of her kind friend’s house, 
weeping. This lady had three young daugh- 
ters. They tried to make friends with the lit- 
tle stranger ; but she was timid and frighten- 
ed, and turned shrinkingly away from them. 

“ There is a secret,” said this kind mother, 
“which will act like a charm on this poor 
child. It will draw her to you, and make 
her willing to go anywhere with you. This 
secret lies in a word of four letters. Now 
see if you can find it out, my darlings.” 

Then the children began to think what this 
secret could be. They looked among their 
prettiest playthings to find something that 
would answer. At last the oldest daughter 
said — “I know what it is; D-o-1-1 is a word 
of four letters. I’ll try my pretty new doll.” 
So she took her best doll and offered to give 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 251 


it to the child if she would come into the 
parlor. But this had no effect upon her. 

Then the next in age said to herself, 
“ m-u-f-f is a word of four letters. Perhaps 
this is it.” So she took her beautiful muff, 
that was given her at Christmas, and of- 
fered to show it to the little stranger. But 
she only turned away her head and wouldn’t 
look at it. 

Grace, the youngest daughter, tried next; 
but she was puzzled to know what to do. 
Yet she was not willing to give up, but 
stood looking at the child and feeling great 
pity for her. At last she went and sat down 
by the side of the crying child, and she cried 
too. Presently she took the poor child’s hand 
into hers and stroked and patted it gently. 
Then she said to her tenderly, “Don’t cry 
dear. No one will hurt you here. We only 
want to love you, and be good to you.” Then 
she put her little arms round the stranger’s 
neck, and took her head upon her shoulder, 
and gently kissed her. 

The little girl stopped crying. She looked 


252 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


earnestly in the face of this new friend, and 
then dashing away her tears she said — “I’ll 
go anywhere with you.” 

So Grace took the little one by the hand 
and led her into the parlor. 

“Well, girls,” said her mother, “Grace has 
found out the secret. The four letters to 
which I referred spell the word 1-o-v-e. 
Love has greater power than any thing else 
in the world.” 

And love is gentle. The power of love is 
the power of gentleness. We see in this 
story how great this power is. Let us take 
one more example of the power of gentleness. 

A mother’s voice. 

A good lady, living in one of our large 
cities, was passing a drinking saloon one 
day, just as the keeper of it was turning 
a man into the street. He was quite young, 
but very pale. His haggard face and wild 
eyes showed that he had been drinking, 
and was far gone on the way to ruin. He 
was swearing dreadfully, and shaking his 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 253 


clenched fist at the man who had thrust 
him out of the saloon. He was so blinded 
with passion that he did not see the lady 
who stood near him, till she laid her hand 
on him and asked, in a gentle, loving voice 
— “What’s the matter?” 

The young man started as though a heavy 
blow had struck him. He turned quickly 
round, paler than before, and trembling from 
head to foot. He looked at the lady for a 
moment, and then said: — 

“Oh! I thought it was my mother’s voice; 
it sounded so strangely like it ! But her voice 
has long been hushed in death.” 

“You had a mother, then, who loved you?”' 
said the lady. 

He burst into tears as he said : “ 0, yes, I had 
an aged mother, and she loved her boy. But 
since she died every thing has gone against 
me. I am lost; — lost to every thing that is 
good, — lost forever.” 

“ No, not lost forever ; for God is merci- 
ful and gracious, and his pitying love can 
reach the chief of sinners,” said the lady in 


254 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


a low, sweet voice, and her words seemed 
to have a wonderful effect upon the young 
man. 

As the lady passed on her way the young 
man followed her. He noticed the number 
of the house she entered, and wrote down 
in his pocket-book the name that was on 
the door-plate. Then he went on his way 
with new thoughts and feelings stirred in 
his breast. 

Years passed away, and the kind lady had 
forgotten all about this incident, when one 
day a stranger called at her house and sent 
up his card, asking permission to speak with 
her. Wondering who it could be, she went 
down to the parlor and found a noble-look- 
ing, well-dressed gentleman. He rose re- 
spectfully to meet her, and holding out his 
hand, said: — 

“Pardon me, madam, for this liberty; but 
I have come many miles to thank you for 
the great service you rendered me a few 
years ago,” said he in a trembling voice. 

“I am puzzled to know what you mean, 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 255 


sir,” said the lady, “for I do not remember 
to have ever seen you before.” 

“ I have changed so much,” said the young 
man, “ that I do not wonder you have forgot- 
ten me. But though I only saw you once, 
I should have known you anywhere. And 
your voice, too, is so much like my mother’s.” 

The moment these last words were spoken 
the lady remembered the poor young man to 
whom she had spoken kindly in front of the 
drinking saloon, so long before. She saw 
him weeping, and she wept with him. 

Presently the gentleman wiped away his 
tears, sat down, and told the lady that the 
few gentle words she spoke to him on that 
day had been the means of saving him from 
ruin, and of making him a useful man. 

“Those words — l Not lost forever ,’ followed 
me,” said he, “wherever I went; and it al- 
ways seemed to me like my mother’s voice 
speaking to me from the grave. I repented 
of my sins, and resolved to live as Jesus 
and my mother would like to have me live, 
and I am thankful to say, that by the grace 


256 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


of God I have been able to resist temptation, 
and do some good in the world.” 

“ I never dreamed there was so much 
power in a few kind words,” said the lady. 

But we know there is. There is great 
power in gentleness. Here we see the beau- 
ty of the King’s lessons. And this is a good 
reason why we should learn and practice this 
lesson of gentleness. 

But, in the second place there is — Great Pleas- 
ure — in gentleness. And this gives us another 
view of the beauty of the King’s lesson. 

When you see a column of finely polished 
marble you know how smooth it is, and how 
pleasant it is to draw your hand slowly over 
its glossy surface. Well, what the fine polish 
is to that marble, gentleness is to our words 
and actions. It takes the roughness from 
them and gives a smoothness which is very 
pleasant to those who are about us. 

When we go into the woods in summer 
time, we see the soft, downy moss that grows 
over the rocks; and when we tread on that 
moss, or sit on it, or lie down on it, we know 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 257 


how pleasant it is to have the sharp, rough 
corners of the rock all covered over by that 
beautiful moss! Well, just what that velvet 
moss is to the rock, a loving, gentle spirit is 
to our words and conduct. It covers up the 
sharp corners, and smooths down the rough 
places, and helps to make all that we do, and 
say, pleasant to those about us. And as gen- 
tleness is like moss, we ought to learn and 
practice this lesson, and then we shall have 
the moss of gentleness growing around us 
everywhere. 

LENDING A PAIR OF LEGS. 

Sometimes we ask our friends to “ lend us 
a hand,” and sometimes we hear them say 
“ lend me your eyes ” ; but here is a story of 
a boy who lent a pair of legs to another 
boy. 

Some boys were playing at base-ball, in 
a quiet shady street. Among their number 
was a little fellow, about twelve years old, 
who was lame. He was pale, and feeble, 
supported on two crutches, and found it hard 


258 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


work to move about, even with the help that 
the crutches gave him. 

The lame boy wanted very much to take 
part in the game. He did not see how much 
his lameness would be in his own way, and 
in the way of the other boys. 

His companions good-naturedly tried to 
persuade him to stand aside, and let another 
take his place. They did not like to hurt 
his feelings, by telling him that his lameness 
would be in the way. Still he wanted to 
join. “Why, Jimmy,” said one of them at 
last, “you know you can’t run.” 

“ Hush ! hush ! ” said another of the boys, 
“ I’ll lend him my legs. When his turn 
comes, I’ll run for him, and you can count 
it to him.” So he took his place by Jimmy’s 
side ready to lend him his legs, and run for 
him, when his turn came. 

“You know,” said this kind-hearted boy, 
aside to his companions, “if you were like 
him, you wouldn’t want to be told of it, all 
the time.” 

That boy had learned the lesson of gen- 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 259 


tleness. And pleasant indeed it must have 
been to see him practicing it. What lots of 
nice soft moss there would be, on all the 
rocks near his house. 

PAWS AND CLAWS. 

“Mother,” said little Nanny, “sometimes 
pussy has paws, and sometimes she has 
claws; isn’t that funny? She pats with her 
paws, and plays prettily; but she scratches 
with her claws, and then I don’t love her. I 
wish she had no claws, but only soft little 
paws. Then she would never scratch, but 
would be always nice.” 

“Well, Nanny, dear,” said her mother, “re- 
member that you are very much like pussy. 
Those little hands, so soft and delicate, when 
well employed are like pussy’s paws, very 
pleasant to feel. But when they pinch, or 
scratch, or strike in anger, then they are 
like pussy’s claws.” 

“ Well, that’s funny enough, mother. I 
never thought I was so much like pussy.” 

“You love pussy much,” said her mother, 


260 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“ and you may learn a good lesson from her. 
When you think kind thoughts, and speak 
gentle, loving words, then you are like pussy 
with her nice, soft paws, and every body will 
love you. But when you think bad thoughts, 
or give way to ugly tempers, and speak cross 
and angry words, then you are like pussy 
with her sharp, scratching claws, and no one 
can love you.” 

Nice, soft paws are much pleasanter, than 
sharp, tearing claws. And so gentleness is 
much pleasanter than anger or wrath, and 
this is a good reason why we should try to 
learn this lesson. 

THE SAND-PAPER TONGUE. 

A gentleman who had learned well the 
lesson of kindness, one day heard a neigh- 
bor of his, give a very rough answer to some 
boys who had asked him, in a polite way, 
how to find a particular street. 

“Friend Jones,” said the gentleman, “a 
man’s tongue is either a piece of velvet, or a 
piece of sand-paper; just as he likes to use it. 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 261 


I declare you use your tongue, like a piece 
of sand-paper. Now, it’s quite as cheap, my 
friend, to have a velvet tongue, as a tongue 
of sand-paper, and a great deal pleasanter. 
Let’s try the velvet tongue.” 

Think of the difference between a velvet 
tongue, and a tongue of sand-paper. You 
know how soft velvet is, and how pleasant it 
is to handle it. And you know how rough 
sand-paper is, and how unpleasant it is to 
handle it. Sand-paper is stiff paper, which 
has fine sand or ground glass fastened on 
it with glue. It is used by cabinet-mak- 
ers, who rub their furniture with it, so as 
to take off all the roughness. If you rub it 
on your hand, it will take the skin off, and 
make the blood come. Sand-paper, then, is 
very rough and disagreeable. And a sand- 
paper tongue, is one that speaks rough, un- 
kind words. These hurt our feelings just 
as the flesh is hurt when the sand-paper is 
rubbed over it. When we speak rough or 
angry words, we are using the sand-paper 
tongue, and making somebody’s heart bleed. 


262 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


THE SOFT ANSWER. 

A stout boy, who worked in a grocery 
store, was one day cariying a big basket 
filled with tea, coffee, sugar, oranges, and 
other good things, along a narrow lane, to 
a house at the end of the village. As he 
walked slowly along with his load, a merry 
little fellow came running in the opposite di- 
rection, singing like a lark on a sunny morn- 
ing. He was a little careless, for he came 
plump against the grocer-boy’s basket, and 
knocked it off his arm. Away rolled the 
bright golden oranges, and out went the 
parcels on the dusty path, very much to the 
vexation of the errand boy. With his face 
flushed, and his eyes flashing, he rolled up 
his sleeves, and squared off for a fight. 

But the little fellow did not want to fight. 
He had no wish to injure the grocer’s boy. 
So with a pleasant smile he said: — 

“I’m real sorry for what I’ve done. It was 
very careless in me. Indeed I didn’t mean 
to upset your basket. I beg your pardon. 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 263 


Come, let me help you pick up the things.” 
These were soft words. There was a gen- 
tle spirit in them, and this melted the an- 
ger from the other boy’s heart as the sun- 
beams melt the snow. They “turned away 
his wrath.” He saw that nothing was to be 
gained by fighting, so he dropped his arm, 
and went to work to pick up the scattered 
goods. When every thing was replaced the 
boys shook hands with each other, said “good 
morning,” and went on their way, cheerful 
and happy. 

Now suppose the boy who upset this bas- 
ket, when he was spoken to crossly, had used 
hard words, instead of soft ones. What 
then? Why there would have been a fight. 
Black eyes, and bleeding noses, and bro- 
ken parcels, and squeezed oranges, and an- 
gry feelings, would have been the end of it. 
The lesson of gentleness practiced prevented 
all this. Soft words are pleasant and blessed 
things. They are more precious than pearls. 
Let us remember this, and keep them ready 
to use whenever needed. 


264 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


There is great 'pleasure in gentleness. Here 
we see the beauty of this lesson of our King; 
and a good reason for learning it. 

But , in the third place there is — great profit 
— in gentleness: and here again we see the 
beauty of this lesson. 

If people can only be sure of profit in any 
thing they are asked to engage in, it has 
great weight with them. “Will it pay?” is 
a question often asked. And when there is 
a hope of good pay, men are ready to do 
almost any thing. 

But there is great profit in gentleness. It 
brings real, substantial benefits to those who 
practice it. Let us look at some examples 
of this. 


THE POWER OF KINDNESS. 

One day in winter, a heavily ladened team 
was going along one of the streets of Boston. 
It was just after a snow storm. Pretty soon 
the wagon got stalled in the snow, and the 
horses stopped. The kind-hearted driver, in- 
stead of getting angry at the horses, cursing 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 265 


them, and lashing them with his whip, got 
a shovel and cleared away the snow from 
before the wheels. Then he stepped np to 
the shaft horse, and patting him gently said 
in a kind voice: “Now, Billy, we are in a fix. 
You’ll do the best you can, won’t you! ” The 
horse really seemed to understand what was 
said to him, and rubbed his head against his 
master’s shoulder as if to say, “All right 
I’ll do my best.” Then he started with a 
will, and carried the wagon straight through 
the snow. 

A well-known gentleman who belonged to 
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals was going by and saw what took 
place. He was so much pleased that, when 
he reached his office, he wrote a note at once, 
to the owner of the team, and enclosed a ten- 
dollar bill, with the request that it should be 
given to “the driver who treated his horses 
so kindly.” 

Certainly that man found his gentleness 
profitable to him, not only in the ease and 
comfort with which he got out of the trouble 


266 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


with his horse, but also in the money that it 
brought him; and in what was worth much 
more to him, the respect which it secured to 
him from the gentleman who sent him the 
money. 


KINDNESS NOT FORGOTTEN. 

There was a boy who was born in England, 
but whose parents came to this country while 
he was yet young. He was bound out as an 
apprentice near Newark, New Jersey, but is 
now a rich man. Not long ago he was rid- 
ing with a friend. Pointing to a certain 
gateway, as they rode by he said: 

“When I was a boy on this place, I re- 
member, one day, opening that gate to let a 
gentleman on horseback go out. He threw 
me a silver sixpence. It dropped in the dust 
and I could not find it. He saw that I had 
lost it and came back and kindly got off 
his horse and helped me find it. As he 
handed it to me he spoke so gently and lov- 
ingly that I never could forget his kindness. 
Within the last few years I have had it in 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 267 


my power, three times to save that gentle- 
man from failing in business, and it gave me 
the greatest pleasure to do so, because of that 
sixpence which he gave me and the kindness 
with which he did it.” 

Now certainly that gentleman’s kindness 
was very profitable to him. It kept him 
three times, from failing in business. He 
never invested sixpence in all his life that 
yielded such good interest as the one he 
gave, so kindly, to that poor boy. 

GENTLENESS AND ITS REWARD. 

Two boys applied for a place in the store 
of a Boston merchant. One was older than 
the other, and had some experience in the 
business. He was a gentleman’s son, and 
well-dressed. The other boy was the only 
son of a poor widow. His clothes were plain 
and threadbare, but clean and well-mended, 
and his face had a quiet, honest look that 
was itself, a good letter of recommendation. 
The elder lad, the gentleman’s son, would 
no doubt have got the situation, if it had 


268 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


not been for a little incident that occurred, 
at that time. 

The two boys came together, at the hour 
appointed, to the gentleman’s store. He hap- 
pened to be on the door-step just as they 
came up. At that moment, a poor shiver- 
ing child crossed the street. As she stepped 
on the sidewalk, her foot slipped on the 
icy stones, and she fell in the half-melted 
snow. 

The elder boy laughed rudely at her ap- 
pearance, as he saw the water dripping from 
her ragged clothes; but the poor child cried 
bitterly as she searched for her lost pennies. 
Willie, the younger boy, hastened to her side 
and helped her. Two pennies were found 
in the snow; the others were probably, in a 
little icy pool beside the curbstone. Willie 
rolled up his sleeve, and plunged his hand 
down into the water, groping about for the 
lost pennies. One was found. He handed 
this to the poor child, saying — 

“I’m afraid, Sissy, that the other is lost.” 

“Then I can’t get the bread,” said the 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 269 


child, “and mammy and the children can 
have no supper.” 

“ There’s a penny,” said Willie, taking one 
from a little purse which had very few in it, 
and then he washed his hand in the snow 
and wiped it, on his coarse white handker- 
chief. The other boy looked on with con- 
tempt, and said: 

“You’re a greenhorn I guess.” 

But he was mistaken. The gentleman to 
whom they were both applying for the situ- 
ation, had seen and heard, what had taken 
place. He made up his mind in a moment 
to give the situation to Willie, though he 
would, no doubt, have given it to the other 
boy, if it had not been for this incident. It 
proved to be an excellent situation for Willie, 
and I need scarcely say, that he did well in 
it. Willie’s gentleness gained him that situ- 
ation. Certainly, he found it profitable. 

Here is another very good story that illus- 
trates this point very strikingly. 


270 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


KINDNESS REWARDED. 

Some time ago, a poor old widow woman 
lived on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Bail way, where it passes through a wild dis- 
trict of Western Virginia, in which are veiy 
few inhabitants. She had an only daugh- 
ter. They lived in a log hut near a very 
deep gorge, which was crossed by the rail- 
way bridge. The widow and her daughter 
managed to support themselves by raising 
and selling poultry and eggs. In the sum- 
mer season they gathered berries, and with 
other little articles, carried them to market. 
But it was a long and weary walk, to the 
town where she sold these articles. The rail- 
way passed by her cabin to this town; but 
she could not afford to ride, and so trudged 
contentedly along on foot. The conductor of 
the train came to know this good old woman. 
He was a kind-hearted man. He had learned 
the lesson of gentleness, and loved to practice 
it whenever he had a chance ; and so he often 
called to the old widow when she was in 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 271 


sight, and gave her a ride to, or from, the 
market town. This saved her many a weary 
mile. She felt very grateful to the conductor 
for his kindness, and the object of this story 
is to show, how profitable his kindness proved 
to him. 

One spring, in the stormy month of March, 
heavy rains had fallen. Roaring torrents of 
melting snow and ice, came rushing down 
from the mountains into the gorge, near the 
old widow’s hut. The flood arose in the 
darkness of the night, and she heard a ter- 
rible crash. The railway bridge was torn 
from its place, and its broken timbers dashed 
against the rocks below. It was almost mid- 
night. The rain fell in torrents. It was dark 
as Egypt. The storm was howling terribly. 
In half an hour the express train would be 
due. What could be done to give warning of 
the awful danger • threatening that train? It 
was terrible to think of the destruction that 
awaited it. But what could she do? She had 
hardly a whole candle in her hut; and no 
light she could make, of this kind, could burn 


272 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


in that wild storm. Not a moment was to 
be lost. Quick as thought she resolved what 
to do. She cut the cord of her only bedstead, 
and shouldered the bedding; the bed-posts, 
the side pieces and head pieces. Her daugh- 
ter followed with their two wooden chairs. 
They climbed up the steep embankment, and 
piled all their household furniture in the 
middle of the railway track, a few rods in 
front of the awful gorge, through which the 
wild flood was dashing. She kindled the 
fire; and the distant rumbling of the train 
was heard just as the dry, broken furniture 
began to burn. The bright blaze leaped up, 
and threw its red, glaring light a long way 
upon the track. But the fire would not last 
long, and she had nothing more, with which 
to keep it burning. 

The thunder of the train grew louder. But 
it was still five miles distant. Will they see 
it in time? Will they put on the brakes 
soon enough? The thought almost makes 
her wild. What else can she do? She tears 
off her dress. She fastens it to the end of a 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 273 


pole, plunges it into the fire, and then runs 
along the track waving the blazing signal 
round her head. Her daughter seizes a piece 
of the blazing bedstead and follows her moth- 
er’s example in waving it round. The next 
moment will decide the fate of a multitude 
of passengers. The ground trembles under 
the old widow’s feet. The great red eye of 
the engine bursts upon her as it turns a sud- 
den curve. The train is at full speed; but the 
engineer sees that there is something wrong. 
A shrill whistle echoes through the hills. Its 
cry is — “Down brakes! down brakes!” The 
brakemen spring to their posts, and bend on 
the wheels with the strength which despera- 
tion gives. The wheels move slower and 
slower, and the panting engine finally stops 
in front of the widow’s fire. It still gave 
light enough to show the bridge gone, and 
the yawning abyss, where the train and its 
passengers would have plunged into death 
and destruction, too horrible to think of, had 
it not been for the good widow’s signal fire. 

The conductor, the engineer, the brake- 


274 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


men, and passengers, came to see what was 
the matter. And when they saw the bridge 
gone, and the dreadful gulf, into which they 
had so nearly plunged, we can imagine how 
they felt. They did not thank the widow 
first; but kneeling down by the side of the 
engine, in the dim light of the burnt-out pile, 
amidst the rain, and wind, and pelting storm, 
they first thanked God, who had made use of 
the widow woman to save them from such a 
terrible death. And then, with many tears, 
they thanked her for what she had done. 
Then they made a collection for her, on the 
spot. Afterward the railway company, on 
hearing of her noble act, gave her money 
enough to make her comfortable for the rest 
of her life. This was right, and generous, 
and noble. 

Surely that conductor was well paid for 
his kindness to the old widow woman. This 
story proves the great profit there is in gen- 
tleness. 

“A soft answer turneth away wrath.” 

Thus we have seen that there is — great 


BEAUTY OF THE KING’S LESSONS. 275 


power — great pleasure — and great profit in 
gentleness. This shows ns the beauty of 
this lesson of our King, and should lead us 
all to try and learn — the lesson of gentleness. 

There was an old gentleman who was re- 
markable for his gentleness. When a young 
man he was known to have had a violent 
temper. He was asked how he managed to 
overcome his bad temper ? His answer was 
a short but a wise one. Let us remember 
it in connection with this sermon. He said 
it was — “By praying to God, and speaking 
low” 

When persons are angry, they raise their 
voices and speak loud. To overcome anger 
and learn the lesson of gentleness, we must 
— u pray to God and speak loiv.” 













































I 





































* 









* 












































IX. 

THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 

JESUS COMPARED TO A ROCK. 



IX. 

THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 

JESUS COMPARED TO A ROCK. 

“ The Lord is my Rocky — II Samuel xxii. 2. 

If you and I go and stand by the cradle 
in which a baby is sleeping, no matter how 
much we love it, or feel interested in it, we 
can not tell what sort of a person it will be 
when grown up. No one can tell this of any 
ordinary baby. But it was different with Je- 
sus, when he lay, as an infant, in the man- 
ger at Bethlehem. If we had gone with the 
shepherds to worship him, we might have 
taken our Bibles with us, and as we stood 
there, gazing in wonder at the infant Sa- 
viour, we might have opened our Bibles ; 
and turning, to one passage after another, 
that the prophets had written about him, we 


280 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


might have told just what sort of a person 
he was going to be. It had been foretold 
about him that he was to be a Prophet — a 
Priest — a King — a Shepherd — a Father — a 
Friend — a Counsellor — a Comforter — a Lead- 
er — a Refuge — and a Shield. He was com- 
pared to a great many things that were 
useful, and interesting, and beautiful. And 
among these, he was compared to a Rock. 
David was speaking of Jesus, in the chapter 
in which our text is found, when he said — 
“The Lord is my Rock.” And there are 
a great many other places, in which he is 
spoken of as a Rock. The prophet Isaiah 
says in one place — “ In the Lord Jehovah 
is everlasting strength” (chap. xxvi. 4). In 
the Hebrew Bible the word for “ everlasting 
strength” means also — “the Rock of Ages.” 
We always think of Jesus when we sing that 
good old hymn, 

“Kock of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in thee.” 

And it is right to think so. Here we see 
the beauty of Jesus our King in the titles 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 281 


applied to him. Now, we are to think of 
Jesus as — The Rock. 

And the question we have to try and an- 
swer is — what kind of a Rock, do we find in 
J esus ? 

There are four things about this Rock of 
which we must speak, if we wish to under- 
stand just what kind of a Rock it is, that we 
find in Jesus. 

In the first place it is — a broad Rock — that 
we find in Jesus. 

Every other rock is confined to some one 
particular place. If you want to get any 
benefit from it, you must go to the place 
where the rock is found. 

We have all heard, for example, about the 
“ Rock of Gibraltar.” This is a great moun- 
tain of rock in the southern part of Spain, 
at the entrance into the Mediterranean Sea. 
It belongs to England. The English people 
have made a fort, or citadel, out of that 
mountain rock. Rooms and galleries are cut 
through the heart of it. Port-holes for can- 
non are made, through those walls of solid 


282 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


rock. That is the strongest fortress in the 
world. It is so strong that it can not be 
taken. The heaviest cannon-balls can make 
no impression upon it. If you and I were in 
danger of being attacked, we should be en- 
tirely safe, provided we could only get into 
that rocky fortress of Gibraltar. But suppose 
that we are in danger here, in our own coun- 
try, and that strong rock is thousands of 
miles away; will it be of any use to us ? No. 
It is too far off. We can not reach it. But 
when we think of Jesus as our Rock, he is 
not, like the Rock of Gibraltar, confined to 
one particular place. He is in every place. 
He is indeed a broad Rock. This Rock is so 
broad that it may be found in every country. 
In any part of the world it is easy to get 
on this Rock. This is what David meant to 
teach us, when he said; “From the ends of 
the earth will I cry unto Thee — when my 
heart is overwhelmed — lead me to the Rock” 
(Psa. lxi. 2). 

If we want to know how broad this Rock is, 
we must notice what sort of people get on it. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 283 


WHERE AM I GOING? 

One fine summer evening, as the sun was 
going down, a man was seen trying to make 
his way through the lanes and cross-roads 
that led to his village home. His unsteady, 
staggering way of walking showed that he 
had been drinking, and though he had lived 
in that village more than thirty years, he 
was now so drunk that it was impossible for 
him to find his way home. 

Quite unable to tell where he was, at last 
he uttered a dreadful oath, and said to a per- 
son going by, “I’ve lost my way; — where am 
I going?” 

The man thus addressed was an earnest 
Christian. He knew the poor drunkard very 
well, and pitied him greatly. When he heard 
the inquiry — “where am I going?” in a quiet, 
sad, solemn way he answered, 

“To ruin.” 

The poor staggering man stared at him 
wildly for a moment, and then murmured, 
with a groan — “ That's so." 


284 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“Come with me,” said the other kindly, 
“and I’ll take you home.” 

The next day came ; the effect of the liquor 
had passed away, but those two little words, 
tenderly and lovingly spoken to him, did not 
pass away. “ To ruin 1 To ruin ! ” he kept 
whispering to himself. “ It’s true, I’m going 
to ruin. 0 God, help me, and save me.” 

Thus he was stopped in his way to ruin. 
By earnest prayer to God, he sought the 
grace which made him a true Christian. 
His feet were established on the Kock. It 
was a rock broad enough to reach that poor, 
miserable drunkard, and it lifted him up 
from his wretchedness, and made a useful, 
happy man of him. 

THE INFIDEL CAPTAIN. 

A minister of the Gospel was once travel- 
ling on one of our western steamboats. The 
captain of this boat, was a very profane man, 
and was in the habit of swearing dreadfully 
against religion and the Bible. He took spe- 
cial pains to do this, in the hearing of this 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 285 


good minister. The captain was a very vio- 
lent man, and most persons were afraid of 
speaking to him about religion. 

But this minister knew no fear. His heart 
was full of courage and of kindness. He be- 
lieved that however wicked a man may be, 
there is always some good spot in his heart 
that, if it be touched wisely and kindly, may 
lead him to better things. So he took an 
opportunity one day of speaking to the cap- 
tain on the subject of religion. This made 
him angry, and he spoke with great violence 
against the Scriptures, and the story of the 
life of Jesus. He said he believed the Bible 
was full of lies and nonsense. 

When he got through, the minister simply 
said to him — “ Captain, did you ever read the 
New Testament?” 

This was an unexpected question. But the 
captain was honest. 

“No,” said he, “I can’t say that I ever did.” 

“ Will you promise me to read it through ? 
And then when we meet again, we will have 
a talk about it.” 


286 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


This was said so kindly and pleasantly 
that the captain was obliged to say he 
would. 

The minister gave him a Testament and 
then they separated. 

Some weeks after this, that minister was 
going down the river again on the same boat. 
Here he met his friend, the captain. As soon 
as he looked at him he saw that a change 
had taken place in him. 

You know when you look at a house by 
night, you can tell in a moment whether 
there is a light in it, or not. If there be 
no light in it, the windows will look gloomy 
and dark. But if there be a light in it, you 
will see its beams shining brightly through 
the windows. 

When we are not Christians we have no 
true light in our souls. But when we learn 
to know and love Jesus, he kindles the hope 
of heaven in our souls, and that lights them 
up, as if there was a sun shining within us. 
The minister shook the captain warmly, by 
the hand, and said to him: — 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 287 


“Well, my friend, what do yon think about 
the Testament now?” 

“ Sir,” said the captain, *• I thank you with 
all my heart for giving me that blessed book. 
I had not read far in it, before I found that 
I was a great sinner. Then I was in great 
trouble. But I read on, and pretty soon I 
found that Jesus is a great Saviour; just 
what I needed. I began to pray to him. 
On board this crowded boat, going up and 
down the river, I sought him, and I found 
him ; or rather I ought to say, that he found 
me. He pardoned my sins, and comforted 
me, and blessed me, and now I am as happy 
as the day is long, and I want every body to 
know and love Jesus.” 

So the captain found this Rock, in his jour- 
neys up and down the river. He got on the 
Rock and it made him glad. What a broad 
Rock this is ! 

NO WAY TO CHRIST. 

A minister of the Gospel was going out 
of his church one Sunday, after a very sol- 


288 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


emn service. Standing in the aisle he met 
a young man whose eyes were filled with 
tears, and who seemed to be in great distress. 
The young man came up to him and said, 
“Sir, can you tell me the way to Christ?” 

“No, my friend,” said the minister, “ I can 
not tell you the way to Christ.” 

“ I beg your pardon,” was the young man’s 
answer, “ But I thought you were a minister 
of the Gospel.” 

“ So I am,” he replied. 

“And you can not tell me the way to 
Christ ? ” 

“No, I can not tell you the way to Christ, 
because Christ himself is the way; and there 
is no way to him. Yon are thinking of 
Christ as up in heaven, or a long way off 
from you. This is not so. He is here. He 
is everywhere. He is nearer to you, than I 
am now. He is ready to hear and waiting 
to bless you. Open your heart to him. Tell 
him what you want. Ask him to pardon, 
and save, and bless you. Then believe his 
word, when he promises to do so. And 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 289 


then, as surely as God lives, you will be 
saved.” That young man did as he was 
told, and he soon found joy and peace in 
believing. 

And if you and I should go round the 
world, we should find the same thing true 
everywhere. In Europe, in Asia, in Africa, 
in the islands of the sea, we might say to 
those who asked us the way to Jesus — “there 
is no way to him, because he himself is the 
way, and he is everywhere.” 

And so, when we speak of Jesus as “The 
Rock,” we may well say that he is — a broad 
Rock. 

But , in the second place, Jesus is — a high 
Rock — as wed as a broad one . 

David’s prayer was — “Lead me to the 
Rock that is higher than /.” We think of 
heaven as a high place. And so it is. God 
calls it — “ the high and holy place ” (Isaiah 
lvii. 15). And one reason why we may speak 
of Jesus as higher than we are, is because 
he is in heaven, and we are on earth. But 
there is another sense in which we use this 
19 


290 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


word high. We apply it to character, as well 
as to place. For example, we sometimes say 
of a person in whom we have no confidence, 
that he is a mean, low fellow. Then we use 
the word low as meaning had — a bad char- 
acter. And so, on the other hand, when 
speaking of a person who is good, and hon- 
est, and noble-hearted, we say he has a high 
character. And so the word high sometimes 
means, that which is noble or good. And 
Jesus may well be called high in this sense; 
because he is the best and noblest of all 
beings. And he not only has this charac- 
ter himself, but he makes those who know 
and love him share it with him. It has 
been well said that-^A Christian is the high- 
est style of man.” And this is true of boys 
and girls too. And so we may well say that 
when we become Christians we are led to a 
“ Rock that is higher than we are.” It makes 
us better than we were before. Those who 
are really on this Rock, may truly be said to 
be on a high Rock, because they are on a 
Rock, that will help them to become good, 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 291 


and kind, and generous, and noble. Let us 
look at some examples of those, who are on 
this high Rock, and see what kind of per- 
sons they are. 

“my ’mancipation book.” 

In the year 1834, the British and Foreign 
Bible Society sent a large number of copies 
of the New Testament and Psalms to the 
West India Islands, to be distributed among 
the negroes there. The distribution of these 
books took place at the time of the Emanci- 
pation of the negroes, or their freedom from 
slavery. They came to think that somehow 
or other, the Bible was the cause of their 
freedom; and so, they were accustomed to 
call it their “’Mancipation Book.” 

Some time after this, a Christian lady, who 
wished to make herself useful, was visiting 
one afternoon at a negro hut on one of the 
plantations. After talking, for awhile, with 
the negro woman who lived there, she saw 
a fine large copy of the Bible on the shelf, 
and pointing to it, she said, 


292 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“ Nanny, what handsome book is that you 
have there?” 

“Oh, missis! dat’s my ’Mancipation Book.” 

“ But it’s of no use to you, Nanny, because 
you can’t read it.” 

“For true, missis, me no able to read him; 
but me pickaninnies (children) can.” 

“Well, but your pickaninnies have books 
of their own to read. You might spare that 
for somebody, who can read, but who has no 
Bible.” 

“No, missis,” replied Nanny, with great 
earnestness, “no; me no able to spare him 
at all. Dat book de one watchman for me 
house.” 

“How so?” asked the lady. 

“Why, missis, before-time, Nanny’s temper 
used to rise too strong for her. Me no able 
to keep him down at all. But now, when de 
bad temper would rise, de book stan dar, and 
him say, ‘No, no, Nanny, you no go for to 
do dat. Dat is wicked.’ ” 

And so Nanny, who had been one of the 
most ill-tempered aiid disagreeable persons 




✓ 







. 

V 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 293 


on the plantation, became, through the grace 
of God, a thoroughly changed woman. The 
mere sight of the Bible, which she could not 
read, was a help to her, in subduing her bad 
temper. It was a high Rock to which she 
was led, when she became a Christian. It 
was higher than she was, and gave her a 
better character than she could have had, if 
she had not been led to that Rock. 

THE TOULOUSE GALLEY-SLAVE. 

Many years ago, in some countries of 
Europe, when a person committed an offence 
against the laws, he was condemned to work, 
for a number of years, as what was called “ a 
galley-slave.” These galleys were large ves- 
sels, which were moved along, by a great 
number of heavy oars. The men who rowed 
these oars were chained to the seats on which 
they sat. The work they had to do, was 
very severe, and the treatment they received 
was hard and cruel. 

On one occasion, a young man, belonging 
to a good family, had fallen into bad com- 


294 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


pany. He joined his companions one night 
in doing something very wrong. He was 
taken up, tried, and sentenced to serve for 
seven years, among the galley-slaves, in the 
harbor of Toulouse, in France. There, he had 
time to think over his evil ways. He was 
led to repentance, he prayed for pardon, and 
became a Christian. Even on board the gal- 
ley-slave ship he was led to this high Rock. 
What a high character it gave him we shall 
see directly. 

Not long after this, he contrived to make 
his escape from the slave ship. He disguised 
himself, and set off for his home in a dis- 
tant part of the country. While pursuing 
his journey he stopped one night at a cottage 
by the road-side, and asked for a night’s 
lodging. It was freely given to him. As 
he sat with the family, at their evening 
meal, he found they were in great distress. 
Their rent, amounting to forty francs, was 
due. They were unable to pay it, and father, 
mother, and six children, were to be turned 
out of doors in a few days. The young 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 295 


man was greatly distressed for them, and 
lay awake the rest of the night, thinking it 
all over. There was only one thing he could 
do to help them, and that he resolved to do. 

In the morning he told the cottager that 
he was a slave who had just made his escape 
from one of the galleys in the harbor of Tou- 
louse. “ Now, I know,” says he, “ that a 
reward of fifty francs is always given to any 
one, who brings back an escaped slave. I 
have no one, depending on me for support. 
But you have a wife and six children. I will 
gladly, go back and serve out my time in the 
slave ship rather than have you and your 
family turned out of home. I shall feel then 
that I am doing some good in the world. So 
just put a rope round me, and lead me back 
to the city. Then with the fifty francs you 
will receive, you can pay your rent and have 
ten francs left for your family.” 

“No,” said the honest cottager, “I would 
starve with my family, rather than do any 
thing so mean as that.” 

“Then I will go back and give myself 


296 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


up, and you will have to see your family 
suffer.” 

Finally, after much persuasion, he induced 
the man to do as he wished. The rope 
was tied round his body. The cottager led 
him back to the city, he delivered him up 
to the mayor. The fifty francs were paid 
over to him. But instead of going gladly 
away with his reward he stood sadly by. 
When he saw them fastening the chains on 
the noble young man he burst into tears. 
They asked him what this meant. Then he 
told of the young man’s noble offer. This 
melted the hearts of all who heard it. The 
chains were taken off. He was set at lib- 
erty, honored with many gifts, and sent to 
his home rejoicing. It was a high Rock on 
which that young man stood, and those who 
stand with him on it, will share in his noble 
character. That Rock is Christ. He is a 
high Rock. 

In the third place this is — a sheltering 
Rock. 

Sometimes we find in a high rock, or on 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 297 


the side of a mountain, a place cleft out, 
nicely lined with soft moss. There you can 
sit down and find protection and comfort 
when the wind is blowing, or the rain is 
beating, or the storm is bursting. That is a 
sheltering rock. And it is such a rock as 
this, that Jesus is compared to in the Bible. 
David is speaking of him when he says: — 
“ In the time of trouble he shall hide me in 
his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle 
shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon 
a rock” (Ps. xxvii. 5). Here is an illustra- 
tion of the way in which the Lord fulfils 
this promise. 

A city missionary one Saturday night was 
going home with a basket of provisions on 
his arm. Meeting a policeman, he asked him 
if any families had moved into that neigh- 
borhood lately. 

“Yes,” he said, pointing to a building up 
an alley, “a poor woman and some children 
are living there now.” 

The missionary went to the house, rapped 
at the door and was admitted. The woman 


298 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


was sitting by a small light sewing. In the 
corner of the room were two little girls, from 
nine to twelve years old, playing. 

“ My good friend,” said the missionary, “ I 
am here to see, if you will let your girls at- 
tend Sunday-school to-morrow ? ” 

“ I would, sir, very gladly, if they had any 
suitable clothes to go in.” 

“The Lord will provide,” said the mis- 
sionary. 

“ Have you no money ? ” 

“Not yet, but I have committed my case 
into the Lord’s hands.” 

“ Have you any thing to eat ? ” 

“ Nothing, sir.” 

“What will you do for breakfast?” 

“0, sir; once I had a husband. He pro- 
vided every thing for me and my children. 
But now he is dead. Yet God my Maker is 
my husband, and he has promised to be a fa- 
ther to the fatherless. We have committed 
all to him, and have called on him, in this 
our day of trouble. I am trusting in God 
to take care of a poor widow and her chil- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 299 


dren in a strange place, and I know he will 
provide.” 

“ Thank God for such faith,” said the mis- 
sionary; and handed her the basket saying; 
“here is the breakfast God has sent you; and 
before night, you shall have clothing for your 
children.” 

“Oh, thank God for his faithfulness!” ex- 
claimed the woman. “ He hears and an- 
swers prayer. May he bless you!” 

Here was a poor woman turning to this 
Rock, in time of trouble and finding shelter 
in it. 

We need a shelter when we are in fear as 
well as when we are in trouble. And this 
is the view of this Sheltering Rock that Solo- 
mon gives us when he says, “The name of 
the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous 
fleeth into it and is safe” (Prov. xviii. 10). 
Here is a story to show how a little boy was 
sheltered when he was afraid. 

This boy’s name was Frank. He was about 
five years old. He was very much afraid of 
rats and mice. On his way up to the room 


300 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


in which he slept at night he had to go 
through a large lumber room. When he 
saw the rats and mice run across this room 
it frightened him, and made him cling close 
to his mother’s side. 

One night, when bed-time came, Frank’s 
mother was sick, and could not go with 
him. His father was reading the paper, and 
he told him to go up to bed by himself. 

“Oh, father,” said he, “I’m afraid to.” 

“What are you afraid of?” asked his 
father. 

“Afraid of the rats and mice in the big 
lumber room.” 

“Oh, very well, if that’s all, I’ll soon fix 
that.” 

Frank’s father was an officer in the army, 
and was accustomed to give, what is called a 
pass, or safe-conduct. This is a paper signed 
and sealed by the officer in command, and 
given to a person to carry with him. It 
requires those to whom it is shown not to 
hurt the person who bears it, but to let him 

pass on, in safety. Frank had great faith in 

/ 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 301 


his father’s passes, and indeed in any paper 
on which his father’s name and seal were put. 

So his father took a piece of paper and 
wrote on it, these words: — 

“To all the rats and mice in the house, 
greeting : — 

“You are hereby ordered to let my little 
boy Frank pass through the lumber-room, 
and all other rooms, at all times. This order 
will stand good till farther notice is given. 
Any rat or mouse disobeying it will be pun- 
ished according to law. Witness my hand 
and seal.” 

His father then signed his name to it, and 
sealed it with a big red seal, and gave it to 
his little boy. He thanked his father for it, 
and kissed him, and went up to bed without 
a single fear. When he came to the door 
of the lumber-room, he flung it wide open, 
and said, “ Ho, you rats and mice, you can’t 
hurt me, because I’ve got my father’s- pass ! ” 

Frank’s faith in his father’s pass freed him 
from all fear. Now this was only a make-be- 
lieve pass. But Jesus, our Sheltering Rock, 


302 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


gives us a real pass that should keep us from 
all fear. He promises to “give his angels 
charge over us to keep us in all our ways; 
and that no evil shall befall us, neither shall 
any plague come nigh our dwelling” (Ps. xci. 
10, 11). This is a real pass. We may carry 
it with us wherever we go, and if we only 
have the same kind of simple, childlike faith 
in it that Frank had in his father’s pass, it 
will keep us safe not only from all danger, 
but from all fear of danger. We shall feel 
that “ The Lord is our Kock.” And we shall 
know that he is a Sheltering Rock. 

The last thing to speak of about this Rock is 

that it is A WELL-FURNISHED ROCK. 

Sometimes we see a great rock that has 
ferns growing on it. There is plenty of nice 
soft moss and beautiful flowers there, and 
streams of clear, cold, sparkling water are 
flowing down from it. And in the Bible we 
read of honey being found in some rocks, 
and oil also. And sometimes gold and sil- 
ver, and diamonds and other precious gems, 
are found on rocks. And if we had a rock 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 303 


on which all these beautiful and valuable 
things could be found, it would be very- 
proper to speak of that as a “well-furnished 
rock.” But I suppose there is no one rock in 
all the world, on which all these things could 
be found. But we have just such a Rock in 
our blessed Saviour. He is indeed “a well- 
furnished Rock.” Every thing that we need 
for the happiness and salvation of our souls, 
both in this world and in the world to come, 
we find in him. David is speaking of those 
who are on this Rock, when he says, “ Those 
who seek the Lord shall leant no manner of 
thing that is good” (Ps. xxxiv. 10). And the 
apostle is speaking of those who are on this 
Rock, too, when he says — “My God shall 
supply all your need from the riches of his 
grace in Christ Jesus” (Phil. iv. 19). 

“I’ve been on this Rock for forty years,” 
said an aged Christian, “and it grows bright- 
er all the time.” What a blessed thing to be 
on such a Rock! 


304 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


A TOUCHING INCIDENT. 

A little Sunday-school girl seven years old 
was on this Rock. She was taken sick, and 
having no home of her own, was taken to a 
hospital to die. Night came on. Nothing 
was heard in the room where she was but 
the ticking of the great clock in the hall, as 
its pendulum swung backwards and forwards 
saying — tick — tick — tick. Thus the hours 
were struck, as they rolled slowly away. The 
clock had just struck — one — when the voice 
of the little sufferer was heard — clearly, but 
softly — repeating this verse of her Sunday- 
school hymns, 

“ Jesus, the name to sinners dear, 

The name to sinners given; 

It scatters all their guilty fear, 

It turns their hell to heaven.” 

Then all was silent again. Nothing was 
heard but the sound of the great clock as it 
went on ticking. 

Presently, that same sweet voice was heard 
again repeating another verse about Jesus — 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 305 


the well - furnished Rock on which she was 
resting ; — 

“ Happy, if with my latest breath 
I may but gasp his name; 

Preach him to all, and cry in death, 

Behold, behold the Lamb ! ” 

The nurse hastened to the side of the little 
sufferer, but she was too late. The angels 
had come before her, and had taken the dear 
child’s happy spirit, from the lower ledge of 
the Rock on which she had rested, to its 
glorious, sunny heights in heaven. 

A PRAYER IN THE WOODS. 

A poor crippled orphan boy was on this 
Rock. Hear what he says of the help that 
he found on it. 

“ In the summer of 1874 it was necessary 
for me to go to Lowell, a distance of thirty 
miles. I had no money, and knew not how 
to get there. I asked the station agent and 
conductor for a ticket. They said they were 
not allowed to give tickets away. Not know- 
ing what to do, I left the depot and went 

20 


306 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


into the woods, some distance from the sta- 
tion, where I could be alone. Then I kneeled 
down and told my trouble to that Friend who 
is able to provide, and who is rich unto all 
that call upon him. I told him all about my 
difficulty, and asked him, either to give me 
the money, or provide some way by which I 
might get to Lowell. I rose from my knees 
feeling sure that the Lord had heard me, and 
that I should get help in some way. As I 
turned to go out of the woods I heard some 
one say, ‘Halloo! there.’ 

“I looked round with surprise, not know- 
ing that any body was near me. 

“ ‘ Halloo ! ’ said the stranger, ‘ I never 
heard such a prayer as that. What made 
you pray so?’ 

“I told him I was in want, and trouble, 
and had no one to tell it to but my Saviour.’ 

“‘You want money, don’t you/?’ he said. 
‘The Lord has sent it to you; here is five 
dollars. It’s always best to go and tell the 
Lord when you are in trouble. He knows 
how to help. Now go and use the money.’ 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 307 


“ I thanked the stranger, and I thanked 
the Lord, who is no stranger to me, and then 
I went on my way, feeling very happy, and 
thinking about that sweet promise — ‘ My God 
shall supply all your need ' ” 

And so we see how truly this may be 
called “ a well-furnished Bock.” 

Here is one more illustration to show us 
how surely we may expect to find every 
thing we need, whether it be little or great, 
on this Bock. 

MASSA JESUS SEE *EM. 

A poor old woman, in one of the West 
Indian islands, was once in great poverty. 
Times were hard; she was feeble and una- 
ble to work. What distressed her most was, 
her shoes were so bad that she could not 
go to church without getting her feet wet, 
which always made her ill. She was a good 
Christian woman, who had long been on this 
blessed Bock, and had found out, by happy 
experience, what a well-furnished Bock it 
is. Sunday was coming again, and as the 


308 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


weather was wet it made her sad to think 
that there was no prospect of her getting to 
church. 

But she said to herself — “ My blessed Mas- 
ter say, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive.’ So me 
ask him to help me now. Den me take 
de ole shoes, and kneel down, and say — ‘ 0, 
Massa Jesus, look at dese ole shoes. Please 
do. Dey all broke. Me no able go to church 
any more in dem; do, Massa, help me.’ 

“Den me put ’em down, and feel quite 
cheery like. Me know Massa J esus see ’em ; 
dat enuf. In de evening some one come to 
de door and knock; rap — rap — rap. ‘Who’s 
dar?’ me say. ‘It’s me, mammy,’ says Mr. 
D.’s little boy. ‘Massa sent dis parcel for 
you.’ When de boy gone me open de par- 
cel, and dar me find a pair of new shoes I 
Me know dat Massa Jesus sent ’em, and 
me heart too much glad. O, how me praise 
him ! ” And so we see how truly this may be 
called a well-furnished Rock, because every 
thing that we need for our bodies, or for 
our souls, may be found on it. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 309 

It is a broad Rock — a high Rock — a shelter- 
ing Rock — and a well-furnished Rock. How 
thankful we should be that there is such 
a Rock! If God has brought us on this 
Rock, by teaching us to know, and love, Je- 
sus, we should be very cheerful and happy. 
And we should do all we can, to let other 
persons know about this Rock, and try to 
get them on the Rock. This is one of our 
King’s titles; and we see the beauty of the 
King in his titles. 


“ The Lord is my Rock." 




































































































X. 

THE BEAUTY OP THE KING’S TITLES. 

JESUS THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



X. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 

JESUS THE BREAD OF LIFE. 

“/ am the bread of life .” — John vi. 35. 

These are words that Jesus spake in ref- 
erence to himself. And here we have an- 
other of the beautiful titles by which we 
learn to know him. This title is not so strik- 
ing, as some of the others given .to him in 
the Bible. It is very plain, and practical, 
but very instructive. 

We know a good deal about bread. It is 
on our tables all the time. We see it, and 
handle it, and eat it, every day. And we 
should be very thankful that J esus has been 
pleased to compare himself, not only with 
suns and stars, which are very far off, but 
also with things that are as familiar to us, 


314 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


as our daily bread. “ I am the bread of life.” 
Our lesson from this text is — Jesus compared 
to bread. There are three reasons for this 
comparison ; and in each of them we see 
what beauty there is in this title of Jesus 
our King. 

Jesus may be compared to bread in the first 
place because , bread is — a necessary thing. 

Bread is the most necessary of all things. 
But perhaps some of you may be ready to 
say, “No, that can not be ; because, if we 
had no bread, we could still live on other 
articles of food.” 

This is so. But then you must remember 
that when Jesus uses the word bread here, 
he does not mean by it that one article of 
food which we call bread — the substance 
which we make out of flour, by kneading 
it, and baking it. He uses the word bread 
here, to denote food of any kind. He was 
speaking to the Jews about the manna which 
God sent to their fathers, when they were in 
the wilderness. That manna was their bread 
— their food. It was the only thing they had 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 315 


to eat as they journeyed through that desert 
land. 

Suppose, we could get nothing else to eat 
but bread. Then, bread would be absolutely 
necessary for us. If we were without it we 
must die. And Jesus is compared to bread 
for this reason. It is necessary for us to 
have Jesus — to know him, and love him — if 
we wish our souls to live. There is nothing 
else, in the world, that can make the soul 
alive, and keep it alive, but the knowledge 
of Jesus, or what we learn about him in the 
Bible. 

If a person is hungry, and starving for 
want of food, then nothing is more necessary 
for that person than bread. But until we 
know Jesus our souls are hungry and starv- 
ing. He alone can feed them. And he may 
well be compared to bread, because this is so 
necessary for us. 

THE WORM IN A CIRCLE OF FIRE. 

There was an Indian once who had become 
a Christian. He was. so full of thankfulness 


316 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


to Jesus for pardoning Lis sins, and saving 
his soul, that he was never tired of talking 
about him, and of telling his friends what a 
wonderful Saviour he was. 

One day, a friend asked him what it was 
that Jesus had done for him, that led him to 
be always talking so much about him? In- 
stead of replying in words, the grateful man 
took this way of showing what Jesus had 
done for him, and how necessary he had 
found his help to be. 

He took some dry chips, and little bits of 
wood. With these he made a circle about a 
foot in diameter. In the midst of this circle 
he placed a worm. Then he set fire to the 
circle of dry materials, and instantly there 
was a wall of fire blazing all round the poor 
worm. The worm crawled up to the edge 
of the fire, first on one side, and then on an- 
other. And at last, finding there was no way 
of escape for it anywhere, it went to the mid- 
dle of the circle, as far from the fire as it 
could get, and then lifted its head up towards 
the sky, as much as to say that there was no 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 317 


help for it, unless it should come from above. 
Then the Indian put his finger down and let 
the worm crawl up on it, and so lifted it out 
from the danger that surrounded it. 

“There,” said the Indian, “you see what 
Jesus did for me. God was angry with me 
for my sins. His anger surrounded me on 
every side, just like that circle of fire. I 
had looked everywhere for help, but could 
not find it. Then Jesus reached forth his 
hand and saved me. Do you wonder that I 
love to tell about what he has done for me ? ” 

THE NECESSITY OF A DOOR. 

Johnnie was a little fellow only four years 
old. One Sunday morning it rained, and was 
too wet for Johnnie to go to church, so his fa- 
ther and mother went and left their little boy 
at home in charge of a servant-boy named 
Sammy. He was a good, faithful boy, and 
was trying to serve Jesus. All Johnnie’s 
playthings were put away except the pussy 
cat. So Johnnie played awhile with kitty, 
and they got along very well together till 


318 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


he undertook to lift kitty up by her ears, 
as he had seen Sammy do with his rabbits. 
Kitty didn’t like this at all, so she cried — 
meow — and gave Johnnie a scratch on the 
back of his hand. He dropped kitty very 
quickly. She jumped out of the window and 
got away from him. 

“Oh, dear,” said Johnnie. “I wish I was 
in church.” 

“Suppose we play church?” said Sammy. 

“Very well,” said Johnny, “you be the 
minister, and preach, and I’ll be the congre- 
gation, and listen.” 

So Sammy took the big Bible and looked 
over it awhile, and then said: — 

“Now, Johnnie, here’s a nice little text 
with only four words in it, and as you 
are a little boy, four years old, there’ll be 
a word for each year of your life. This is 
the text, 

“ ‘ I am the door.’ You see the first word 
is I. It has only one letter in it. This ‘I’ 
means the Lord Jesus, the good Saviour who 
loves little children. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 319 


“The second word is — ‘am.’ This has two 
letters in it. When Jesus says ‘I am the 
door,’ of course he doesn’t mean that he 
really is a door like that through which 
we come into this room; but only that he 
is like a door. 

“ The third word is — ‘ the .’ This has three 
letters in it. Jesus says — ‘ I am the door,’ be- 
cause he is the one only door by which we 
can enter into heaven. 

“The fourth word is — ‘door' This has four 
letters in it. A door lets us into the house. 
If there were no door we could not get in. 
So the Lord Jesus lets us into heaven. If it 
were not for him we could not get in at all. 
A door keeps out the rain, and the dogs, and 
the thieves; so Jesus keeps away all danger- 
ous and hurtful things out of his beautiful 
heaven. If we want to get into a house we 
must go straight to the door, and if we want 
to get to heaven, we must go to Jesus, and 
ask him to let us in.” 

Then Sammy knelt down, and little John- 
nie by his side, and they prayed that the 


320 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


dear Lord Jesus would help them to love and 
serve him, and bring them to his beautiful 
home when they died. 

THE INFIDEL AND THE TEXT. 

One Sunday evening a young man, who 
was an infidel, was going to some place of 
pleasure. On his way a person spoke po- 
litely to him, and handed him a tract. He 
took it, and in passing by a gas lamp, he 
paused to look at it for a moment, and read 
these words — “Though your sins be as scar- 
let, they shall be as white as snow.” 

“Pshaw! nonsense!” he cried; and then 
tearing the tract to pieces, he threw them 
away. 

But though he threw the paper away, he 
could not throw away the words he had read 
on that paper. As he lay down to sleep that 
night — “ Though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow,” seemed to be re- 
peated in his hearing. “ Nonsense,” said he, 
“ these words are not for me. I’m an infidel. 
I don’t believe in such things.” He went to 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 321 


sleep. In the morning he woke, but hardly 
had he opened his eyes, before these words 
came to him again: “Though your sins be 
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” 
Wherever he went they seemed to follow 
him. Morning, noon, and night, they were 
sounding in his ears. He tried to shelter 
himself in his infidelity; but he could not 
get these strange words out of his mind. At 
last he began to see that he was a sinner. 
He felt that he was a great sinner. He saw 
that his sins were as scarlet, but he could not 
tell how they were to be made “white as 
snow.” The thought of his scarlet sins made 
him very unhappy; and he felt that he never 
could be happy again until these sins were 
forgiven. After remaining in this state for 
some time he went to. church one Sunday 
evening, and heard the minister preach from 
the words — “The blood of Jesus Christ his 
Son cleanse th us from all sin.” And as the 
minister went on to tell of that fountain 
which Jesus opened for sin and uncleanness 
when he died upon the cross, he learned that 
21 


322 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


it is through faith in him that scarlet sins 
can be made white as snow. And then he 
was happy “in believing in Jesus. 

All these illustrations show us how im- 
possible it is to find pardon, happiness, or 
salvation, in any other way than through 
Jesus. They show how necessary Jesus is to 
us. And this is the first reason why Jesus 
may be compared to bread — because bread is 
a necessary thing . 

The second reason why Jesus may he com- 
pared to bread is , that bread is a strengthen- 
ing thing. 

When we have no breads or food, for our 
bodies, the flesh wastes away from our bones, 
and we have no strength left to enable us to 
work, or walk, or even to stand. Sometimes 
we hear of a vessel out at sea that has run 
short of provisions. All the men have been 
on short allowance of food for many days. 
Perhaps half a biscuit is all that each man 
has had to eat for twenty -four hours. Af- 
ter awhile, a strange vessel comes in sight. 
When it comes nearer, the suffering crew 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 323 


make signals of distress. The stranger lays 
to, that is, stops sailing. He sends a boat to 
see what is the matter. When the officer in 
charge of the boat reaches the deck of the 
vessel in distress, he looks round in surprise. 
He says to himself — “Is it possible that these 
are men? They look more like ghosts, or 
walking skeletons. How thin and hollow 
their cheeks! How wasted and shrivelled 
their limbs ! How they totter when they 
try to walk ! How weak they are ! Hardly 
one of them has strength enough to hold the 
helm, or pull a rope, or furl a sail.” 

This is the effect produced upon the body 
by want of food. But when we have plenty 
of good bread, or wholesome food, it is very 
different. Then our cheeks are round, and 
full, and rosy. Our limbs are plump and 
strong. We can walk, or run, or work, with 
pleasure. We are ready for any thing we 
have to do. 

And it is just so with our souls. Jesus is 
the bread which they must eat. When we 
know him, and believe on him, and love him, 


324 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


then we are living on him. He becomes the 
bread of life to us. And as we eat this bread 
we find it to be a strengthening thing. It 
helps us to do our duty, and to find pleasure 
in doing it. 

Now let us look at some illustrations of 
the strength which people get from know- 
ing Jesus, and feeding on him as the bread 
of life to their souls. 

A LITTLE CHILD MADE STRONG. 

“Not long ago,” said a minister who was 
making a temperance speech — “a little boy 
in my Sunday-school, only six years old, was 
sent by his mother to fetch his father home 
from the tavern wdiere he was in the habit 
of spending his evenings and his money. 
He found his father drinking with some oth- 
er men. One of them asked the little fellow 
to take some beer. In a moment the boy 
firmly said — ‘No, I can’t do that, for I be- 
long to the Band of Hope.’ ‘Well, if you 
won’t take the beer,’ said the man, ‘here’s a 
penny for you to buy bull’s eyes.’ These are 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 325 


a kind of sugar plums with liquor in them. 
The boy took the penny and said — ‘ I thank 
you, but I don’t want the bull’s eyes ; I would 
rather put the money in the penny bank.’ 

“ The men looked at each other for a few 
moments, and were silent. Then one of them 
said, ‘Well, boys, I think this is a good lesson 
for us. The sooner we sign the pledge and 
put our pennies in the saving bank the better.’ 
The men left the house at once, and several of 
them, at least, followed that boy’s example.” 

Now this little boy was accustomed to pray 
to Jesus every day to help him to do right. 
He was eating the bread of life, and it was 
this which strengthened him to speak and 
act as he did on this occasion. The two 
little speeches that he made in that tavern 
were good temperance speeches, and they 
were very useful. 

I THE SAILOR’S RELIGION. 

At a meeting for prayer held in a mis- 
sion house in London, one Sunday evening, 
a sailor rose to say a few words. 


326 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“ My friends,” said he, “I want to tell you 
what religion has done for me. It has made 
me love my mother, from whom I ran away 
when a boy ; and it has made me provide for 
my wife and children, whom I had long ne- 
glected and treated unkindly.” 

Here you see how weak and sinful this 
man was before he had learned to love Je- 
sus; but when he knew him, and had eaten 
of the bread of life, it gave him strength to 
do what , was right. 

LEARNING TO OBEY. 

When we are asked to do what we wish to 
do, it is very easy to obey. But if we wish, 
very much, to do one thing, and are told to 
do the very opposite thing, then it is very 
hard to obey. And we need the strength 
which comes from eating the bread of life 
to help us then. 

' In the village where a little girl named 
Susie lived, there was going to be a picnic. 
She wanted very much to go to it. Her 
mother knew how anxious Susy was to go. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 327 


She was very sorry not to let her go, but 
there were good reasons why it was neces- 
sary for Susie to stay at home. 

“ Mother, can I go to the picnic this after- 
noon?” she asked after breakfast. 

“No, Susie, my dear, I’m sorry to disap- 
point you; but you can’t go.” 

Her mother expected to see her look dis- 
appointed, and begin to fret and worry. But 
instead of this she looked very pleasant, 
and went out of the room singing merrily. 
When she came back, by and by, her mother 
said — 

“Susie, my child, I am glad you take the 
disappointment so pleasantly. I was afraid 
you would be very much put out, when you 
found that you couldn’t go to the picnic.” 

“0, mother, I have been praying to Jesus 
lately to put the — ‘ Thy-will-be-done spirit,’ 
in my heart. I think he has heard my v 
prayer, and it helps me very much.” 

This “ Thy-will-be-done spirit ” is a blessed 
spirit to have in our hearts. It will make 
it easy for us to obey. In trying to get 


328 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


this spirit, Susie was making use of Jesus 
as the bread of life to her soul. And she 
found that this bread was a strengthening 
thing. 


A YOUNG HERO. 

Not long ago, you remember, that the yel- 
low fever prevailed in different parts of our 
southern country. Among other places the 
city of Memphis suffered greatly from this 
dreadful disease. In this city there was one 
family consisting of six persons — a father and 
mother, two sisters and two brothers. The 
fever entered their house. All the family 
were stricken down by it except the young- 
est of the boys, a little fellow about twelve 
years old. He was a Sunday-school scholar — 
a thoughtful, serious boy, who was trying to 
love and serve Jesus. There was no one but 
him to wait upon the rest of the family. He 
did the best he could, and acted like a lit- 
tle hero. He woke one morning to find his 
mother and one of his sisters dead. This 
almost broke his heart. While he was weep- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 329 


ing by the bedside of his mother, the doctor 
came in. He tried to comfort the little fel- 
low for awhile, and then said to him: — 

“Now, Charley, my boy, you must play 
the man for the sake of the rest of the fam- 
ily, who are so very sick. You must dry 
up your tears, and wash away the marks of 
them from your face, and go in and wait 
upon the sick ones. You must try and look 
cheerful; and not let them know that your 
mother and sister are dead, till they get bet- 
ter. It might kill them to know it now.” 

Poor Charley! this was a hard thing for 
him to do. But, like a brave little fellow 
as he was, he resolved to try. Lifting up 
his heart to Jesus, in a silent prayer for help, 
he went in, looking bright and cheerful. 

When he was asked how his mother was, 
he said, “I think she is better now.” He 
meant to say she is in a better world, though 
he did not like to say that. He helped to 
nurse them, till they all got well again, and 
he was not taken sick himself. But it was 
the help that Jesus gave him — it was eat- 


330 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


ing the bread of life that strengthened him 
to do his duty so nobly. 

CHEER HIM. 

There was a fire once, in a large city. 
While the upper stories of a handsome dwell- 
ing were wrapped in smoke, and the fire was 
raging fiercely in the lower stories, a loud 
shriek told the fireman that there was still 
some one, in the building, in danger of being 
burned to death. 

In a moment a ladder was reared The up- 
per end of it had hardly touched the heated 
walls, before a brave young fireman sprang 
to the ladder, and rushed up the rounds of it 
on his errand of mercy. But stifled by the 
smoke, he stopped, and seemed as if he was 
on the point of going back, without entering 
the burning building. 

The crowd of people looking on, watched 
him with intense interest; for they feared 
that a moment’s delay might cost a pre- 
cious life. That moment’s pause seemed very 
long. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 331 


As they were almost trembling with fear, a 
voice from the crowd cried out — “ Cheer him ! 
cheer him ! ” In a moment a loud, ringing, 
wild “ hurrah ” burst from that excited mul- 
titude. The fireman heard the cheer. He 
started up amidst smoke and flame, and dis- 
appeared through one of the windows. And 
now that vast crowd is still as the grave. 
Every voice is hushed; and every eye is fixed 
on that window. How long the seconds 
seem ! Will he come ? is the question that 
every heart is whispering. And now look 
at the window. There is the blackened form 
of the fireman, and clasped in his arms he 
has a little child. It is saved from a dread- 
ful death by the courage of that brave fire- 
man. Noble fellow ! How loudly the crowd 
cheer him as he comes down the ladder ! and 
how well he deserves it ! When he paused 
on his way up the ladder, he needed just a 
little more strength and a little more courage. 
And what he needed, that hearty cheer of 
the crowd gave him. And what that cheer 
did for the fireman, Jesus does for his peo- 


332 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


pie. He is the bread of life to them, and 
gives them all the strength and courage they 
need. 

And so the second reason why Jesus may 
be compared to bread is, that bread is a 
strengthening thing. 

But there is a third reason for comparing 
Jesus to bread, and this is — that bread is a 

SATISFYING THING. 

When we are hungry, the desire for food 
is very strong. There is a sort of gnawing 
feeling in the stomach that makes us very 
uncomfortable. But, when we get as much 
good bread as we want, and eat it, then, that 
gnawing, craving feeling disappears. The 
wants of the body are supplied, and we feel 
satisfied. 

And it is just the same with our souls. 
The soul can be hungry as well as the body. 
And when this is the case a great longing 
will be felt, which will make us unhappy. 
And what our souls need then is Jesus. He 
is the only bread that is suited to our wants. 
And when we learn to know Jesus, and be- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 333 


lieve in him; then we really eat the bread 
of life, and our souls feel satisfied and happy. 

JESUS A COMFORT. 

A Christian lady was visiting a hospital 
full of sick and suffering people. Lying on 
one of the beds was a poor young German 
girl, whose name was Mena. She had been 
there five months. She was an orphan girl, 
and was suffering from a disease which never 
could be cured. The lady sat down by her 
bedside and said to her — “ Mena, do you 
know the Lord J esus ? ” 

A sweet smile lighted up her face, and a 
look of joy passed over it, as she said, “Je- 
sus, yes, I know him. I love him. I tell him 
all my troubles, and he comforts me. What 
could I do here all alone without him ? ” 

The lady opened her Testament and read 
part of the fourteenth chapter of John, be- 
ginning with the precious words — “Let not 
your heart be troubled, ye believe in God; 
believe also in me.” When she had finished, 
the poor child said: — 


334 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“Will you please find that for me in my 
Testament, and mark the place, so that I 
can read it for myself, when you have gone 
away ? ” 

The lady found it gladly, and read again 
about the “many mansions” that Jesus is 
preparing for those that love him. Then she 
offered a short and simple prayer that the 
blessed Saviour would be near his suffering 
child, and bring her at last, to the heavenly 
mansions. When she rose from her knees 
she saw tears of joy coursing down the cheeks 
of the poor young sufferer. 

“Oh! come again; come again,” she said; 
“it is so sweet to hear about Jesus!” 

That dear child had learned to feed on Je- 
sus as the bread of life, and she found it a 
satisfying and comforting thing, although 
she was sick in a hospital, and expected to 
stay there till she died. 

THE QUEEN AND THE CHILD. 

Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, had a 
palace at Schonliausen. One day Queen Eliz- 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 335 


abetli, the wife of Frederick, was walking in 
the garden connected with this palace. Her 
gardener had a little niece, named Gretchen, 
with him in the garden. She was on a visit 
to her uncle. Gretchen lived in the city of 
Berlin. Her father was a gardener too. He 
was a poor man, but he w r as a Christian, and 
he had taught his little daughter, to know 
and love Jesus. The queen talked with little 
Gretchen, and was so much pleased with her 
simplicity, and bright, intelligent answers to 
the questions she asked, that she told her 
uncle to let her come to the palace the next 
day, and make a visit. 

So Gretchen dressed herself very neatly 
and went to the palace at the time appointed. 

One of the court ladies, who knew about 
it, saw her coming, and told the queen, who 
was then at dinner. The good queen was 
much pleased to hear, that her little visitor 
had come. She ordered her to be brought 
in at once. Gretchen ran up to her kind 
friend, courtesied to her very respectfully, 
and kissed her dress. At the request of the 


336 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


queen she was placed on a chair, by her side, 
where she could see at once all the splendid 
sight which that table presented. There was 
a large company dining with the queen. 
Lords and princes, and officers of the army, 
and ladies were there, sparkling with gold 
and jewels. It was the first time this inno- 
cent child had ever seen such a sight, and 
the queen felt curious to know what effect 
it would have upon her. 

Gretchen looked quietly at the costly dresses 
of the company, and at the beautiful dishes 
of china and gold that covered the table, and 
was silent for a while. Then, while all the 
persons at the table were looking at her, she 
clasped her little hands, and closed her eyes, 
and repeated in a simple, touching way, 
this verse of a hymn her father had taught 
her: — 

“Jesus, thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are — my glorious dress; 

Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, 

With joy shall I lift up my head.” 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 337 


The company were greatly surprised, and 
deeply moved. One of the ladies said to the 
queen, with tears in her eyes: “Happy child! 
We thought she would envy us, but we have 
much more reason to envy her.” 

That little girl knew Jesus as the bread of 
life, and she was so satisfied with this bread 
that she did not want the rich and beauti- 
ful things that were before her in that great 
palace. 

I have one more story to illustrate this last 
point of our subject. It relates to an inci- 
dent that took place, some years ago, in 
this very city of Philadelphia. This story 
was told me by our dear friend, Mr. Charles 
E. Lex, who is now in heaven. 

One day we were walking together up 
Chestnut street above Nineteenth. As we 
passed by Dr. Rush’s house, which you know 
stands there, Mr. Lex pointed to it and said, 
“ I want to tell you a story, which you may 
perhaps find occasion some day to use in one 
of your sermons for the young. 

“It is about — 

22 


338 


THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 


“DR. RUSH AND THE POOR WOMAN. 

“That house which Dr. R. built was one 
of the largest and finest in the city. When 
it was finished the doctor furnished it with 
great care. The carpets, mirrors, and furni- 
ture were all made on purpose for it, and were 
of the most elegant and costly style. And 
besides these the doctor had a great many 
beautiful pictures, and pieces of very valuable 
statuary. He invited many of his friends to 
come and see his splendid house, and it was 
thought to be a great privilege to do so. 

“ One day when Dr. Rush was coming out 
of his house, before he had moved into it to 
live there, he met an elderly woman named 
Mary, going by, whom he knew very well, as 
she sometimes did house-cleaning and oth- 
er work for him. Mary was a poor widow 
woman who lived very plainly, by herself, in 
two small rooms. She was a member of 
this Church of the Epiphany — a good, ear- 
nest Christian woman, whose religion made 
ner contented and happy. 


THE BEAUTY OF THE KING’S TITLES. 339 


“The doctor had known her for a long 
time, and he respected her very much, for 
her consistent, humble piety. As he met her 
in front of his splendid dwelling, he thought 
he would like to show her through it, and 
see what effect the sight of a house so much 
larger, and grander, than she was accustomed 
to, would have upon her. So he invited her 
to come in, and see the new house. Mary 
went in with him. The doctor took her 
through the house, and showed her all the 
beautiful things he had there. She looked 
at them very quietly; but did not seem to 
be as much impressed by what she saw as 
the doctor thought she would be. When 
they got through he said to her — 

“ ‘ Well, Mary, what do you think of the 
house ? ’ 

“‘It’s very fine, sir, indeed; and I’m ever 
so much obliged to you for letting me see 
it. But it doesn’t begin to compare with 
the house that I’m going to move into be- 
fore long. Let me read you a little about 
this house.’ 


340 THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY. 

“ Then she took a little Testament from her 
pocket, and turning to the last chapter of 
the book of the Revelation, she read some 
of those beautiful verses, which describe the 
heavenly city that is to be the home of those 
who love Jesus; and ended by saying — ‘I 
hope, sir, you may have much enjoyment in 
your new house ; yet you can’t expect to live 
here very long. But Jesus says, of those 
who enter the house he is preparing for 
them, that — “they shall go no more out.” I 
shall dwdl in that heavenly home — forever 

How sweet this was! That good woman 
knew Jesus as “the bread of life,” and she 
found this bread a satisfying thing. 

Bread is a necessary thing — a strength- 
ening thing — a satisfying thing. Here we 
have three good reasons why Jesus may be 
called “the bread of life.” Let our earnest 
prayer be — * 


“ Lord, evermore give us this bread ! 


INDEX 


Affliction, rejoicing in 133, 134 

Afraid, sin makes us 211-213 

African chief and the resurrection 197-199 

Albert, Prince, the happy death of 139 

Ambassador, the anxious 228 

Angels, examples of their power 85, 86 

“ Christ’s kingdom rules the 87 

Answer, a soft, like a lightning rod 246, 247 

A young hero 328 

Baby, come forth 204, 205 

Bills, paying by prayer 160-162 

Blind boy’s trust in his father 224 

Book, my ’mancipation 291 

Bread, Jesus compared to 311 

“ a strengthening thing 322 

“ a satisfying thing 332 

Cheer him ; 330 

Child, a little, made strong 324 

Christ, no way to 287 

“ titles given to, before His birth 279, 280 

Church, the Scripture figures of 109 


342 


INDEX. 


Claws and paws 259 

Comfort in God’s presence 220, 221 

Cripple, the robber 70 

Crown, the heavenly 128 

Death, happy in 73 

Door, a sermon on the 317 

Dream, helped through a. . 167-169 

Dying, illustration of, two boys diving 202, 203 

Examination, the final 193, 194 

Faith, a child’s 238-240 

“ a boy’s 21-29 

Family, the King’s, Beauty of Ill 

“ “ large Ill 

“ “ illustrations of its size, 112-117 

** “ how made one 118, 119 

** “ wealthy 119 

“ “ honorable in spirit, or let me wear 

two 129-131 

“ “ happy 132, 133 

Father, the orphan’s 120 

Galley-slave, the Toulouse 293 

Gentleness, great power in 247 

“ great pleasure in 256 

“ great profit in 264 

“ and its reward 267-269 

Girl, the happy blind 135-137 

Gypsy, the fortune-teller 195-197 

Heaven only told of in the Bible 14 

“ Bible comparisons of 16-18 

“ its beauty as a place 15 

“ the perfection of beauty 19, 20 


INDEX. 


343 


Heaven, the outside of, beautiful 20, 21 

“ the land beyond the mountains 21, 22 

“ its company, the beauty of 23 

“ angels, the company of 24, 25 

“ our relations, the company of 25, 26 

“ children in: will they remain such ? 27-29 

“ none strangers in 30-32 

“ the person and presence of Jesus in 32 

“ preparation necessary for it, as seen in the 

story of the crane 40, 41 

Helped through a dream 167-169 

Hero, a young \ 328 

Honor, the highest 126 

Incident, a touching 303 

Infidel the, and the text 320 

Jesus, the appearance of, on earth 11 

“ His glory and beauty in heaven 12, 13 

** person and presence of, what good men say 

of it 34-36 

4 ‘ person and presence of, what the Bible says of 

it 37 

“ the beauty of, the world full of illustrations of 38, 39 

“ foretold as a King 47 

“ the beauty of as a King, in that he makes 

his people good 47, 48 

“ the beauty of as King, he makes his people 

peaceful 56 

“ as a King, makes happy 67 

“ a comfort 333 

Kindness rewarded 270-275 

“ not forgotten 266 

“ the power of 264 

Kind words, the power of 153-155 


344 


INDEX. 


Kingdom, Christ’s, the beauty of 79, 80 

“ Christ’s, rules all the largest things 81 

“ Christ’s, rules the world 82 

“ Christ’s, rules all the smallest things. . .89, 90 

“ Christ’s, comforting by small things 97-99 

“ Christ’s, ruling at all times, and in all 

places 100-105 

Lazarus, the raising of, showing the King’s power 163, 164 

Legs, lending a pair of 257, 258 

Lightning-rod, a soft answer like 246, 247 

Love, the power of, secret of four letters 250 

Massa Jesus see ’em 307 

Mattie, how learned to serve God 50 

Million, a, how long to count . . .83, 84 

Missionary, a city, and a basket of provisions ....... 296 

Moflfatt, Kev. K., and the resurrection 197-199 

Moss like gentleness 257 

Necessary thing, a 314 

Neighbors, the, and the hens 64 

Obey, learning to. 326 

Old Jim Drayton, how, was made good 53 

Paws and claws 259 

Peace, the, that Jesus makes as King 58 

“ how Jesus makes — Freddie’s prayer 59 

“ “ beating Satan . . 61 

Penitent boy thief, the 49 

Pity, the, of Christ, how it draws to him 148 

Power, God’s preserving 170-172 

“ “ a ground for trust 222 

“ the King’s, in raising Lazarus 163, 164 

“ in the engine of an ocean steamer 165, 166 


INDEX. 


345 


Portrait, the eyes of a, keeping a girl from stealing. . 215 


Prayer, a, in the woods 305 

“ life saved by 156 

“ getting out of trouble by 158 

“ paying bills by 160-162 

“ of Jesus in his work 153-155 

Presence, the thought of God’s, should lead to trust. 214 

“ comfort in God’s 220 

“ God’s, a comfort in banishment 216 

Profit, great, in gentleness 264 

Promise, a, trust in 235-243 

Promises, God’s, trust taught by 231, 232 

“ a child’s trust in God’s 233 

“ faith in 234 

Queen, the, and the child 334 

Rats and mice, a pass to 299 

Religion, a sailor’s 325 

Resurrection, the, how Jesus is 177-179 

“ thoughts and lessons of 180 

“ certainty of 180 

“ proofs of certainty outside the Bible. . . 181 

“ day and night show its certainty 181 

“ the seasons show its certainty 181 

“ insects and frogs show its certainty . 182, 183 

“ its certainty from the Bible 184, 185 

** very wonderful 185 

“ illustrated by a sprouting walking stick 186 

“ illustrated by skeleton coming to life . 186, 7 

“ the, in a moment 188, 189 

“ the beauty of 190 

“ the beauty of, seen in the transfig- 

«* uration 190, 191 

“ its lesson, how to live 192 


“ effect of hearing of, on African chief 197-199 


346 


INDEX. 


Resurrection and its lessons, how to die 200-202 

Riches, the heavenly 122 

Rock, Jesus a broad 281, 282 

“ the broad, a drunkard on 283 

«* “ the infidel on... 284-286 

“ Jesus a high 289, 290 

“ “ a sheltering 296 

“ “ a well-furnished 302 

Rush, Dr., and the poor woman 338 

Sand-paper, the, tongue 211 

Saved from death by fire 90-92 

“ by the wrong signal 93-96 

Secret, the, of four letters or the power of love . . 250, 251 
Skeleton coming to life illustrating the resurrection 186, 7 

Soldiers, the dying 138 

Storms ruled by Christ’s kingdom 87, 88 

Sparrows, God’s, little girls compared to 225, 226 

Striker, a, subdued by kindness 248, 249 

Strong, a little girl made 324 

Sun, the, works quietly 247, 248 

“ the, a million times larger than our earth 82 

Tangles, little 68 

Tell Jesus 149 

Thomas, the apostle, a story of 124, 125 

Tongue, the sand-paper 260 

Toulouse, the, galley-slave 293 

Transfiguration, the, illustrates the resurrection 190, 191 

Trouble, getting out of by prayer 158, 159 

Trust, God’s power a ground for 222 

“ In God, lesson of, taught by shell-fish on the 

“ rock 223 

“ a blind boy’s, in his father 224 

“ perfect 227 

“ the lost boy’s 230 


INDEX. 


347 


Trust, taught by God’s promises 231, 232 

“ in a promise 235-237 

“ in God, only the Christian’s privilege 214 

“ in God, the thought of His promises should 

“ lead to 314 

** in God 217 

Voice, a mother’s 252-255 

Walking-stick, sprouting, illustrating the resurrection 186 

Work, the King’s, beauty of 143, 144 

“ “ the pity in 144-147 

Worm, the, in a circle of fire 315 





































































































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